THE Sea Shepherd ship, the ‘Allankay’, recently anchored off Coffs Harbour on a series of visits from Hobart to the Gold Coast.

In between an Antarctic campaign to protect whales and a Pacific campaign to protect sharks from illegal fishing, Sea Shepherd volunteers joined with Jetty Dunecare group members who welcomed them and thanked them for helping to clean up Jetty Beach.

They removed 48 kilograms of trash from the beach, preventing over 1,600 pieces of litter from entering the ocean.

Sea Shepherd members praised Jetty Dunecare for caring for such a special place on the coast for 42 years.

The beach clean up revealed that litter including coffee cups, fruit juice poppers, cigarette butts and balloons is still a significant problem.

“It’s still very sad we still have so many thoughtless tossers in our community,” Desnee McCosker, President of the Jetty Dunecare group said.

One young child was clapped and cheered as she bought in her collection of rubbish.

Sea Shepherd members counted, recorded and weighed the rubbish collected.

Jetty Dunecare members were able to dispose of the rubbish after recyclable materials were separated.

Group members also learnt about the impact of nurdles; tiny recycled plastic parts that are shipped around the world for further recycling processes, and, when they fall off ships during transport, become toxic to marine life.

Sea Shepherd staff sieved the sand but no nurdles were found.

Ms McCosker thanked the Sea Shepherd crew for their valuable work and said it was a great pleasure to have them visit Coffs Harbour.

By Andrew VIVIAN