WE all know that the drain is just for rain.

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However the consequences to the environment for those that fail to put their rubbish in the bin is massive.

In a second clean up this year Sea Shelter volunteers picked through the rocks on the Nelson Bay breakwall and dove the marina collecting a massive amount of rubbish.

Sea Shelter was started by the team at Irukandji Shark and Ray encounters.

It is Sea Shelters mission to to educate and act through research, including the recording of fish numbers; rehabilitation which is the work that they conduct in removing waste from the waterways; rescuing sick and injured animals and rehabilitating them; and regenerating local environments such as the sponge gardens.

Port Stephens and the Hunter is a known marine ecological hotspot in Australia and Sea Shelter are making it their mission to maintain, assist in attenuation programs or regenerate the habitats already lost.

Lia Pereira of Sea Shelter told News Of The Area, “The clean up collected in total 2196 pieces of litter, not including fishing line which the volunteers collected a total of 2.88kms of.”

In the majority the clean up team collected mostly fishing items, bait bags and food, drink, and cigarette waste.

“The largest items removed from the marina were a shopping trolley, bike and a deck chair,” she said.

With the majority of the refuse being food packaging and fishing line.

Sea Shelter runs entirely off volunteers donating our time for the sake of the ocean, allowing all the profits to go straight to the ocean.

You can find out more about getting involved in Sea Shelter and its work in Port Stephens on their Facebook page or at http://seashelter.org 

By Marian SAMPSON