Divers will take to the sea off Plymouth for an underwater litter pick ahead of the Blue Mile swim, paddle and sail this coming weekend.

Members of the Plymouth Sound British Sub Aqua Club expect to find litter including shopping trolleys, old flip-flops and bottles.  Their unsavoury haul will go on display as part of a campaign to urge people to look after the marine environment.

The event will take place on Friday 02nd July ahead of the Blue Mile weekend, which will see hundreds take to the water to tackle the course by swimming, paddle-boarding or kayaking on July 2 and 3.  The team will carry out a reconnaissance of the area on Wednesday, June 30.

Club chairman John Parlour said members always tried to highlight the environmental impact humans can cause under the waves.  He said: “A lot of the bits and pieces we expect to find can cause damage by trapping fish and sea birds.”

The club has also been involved in clearing broken or illegally set fishing nets, which can continue to catch and kill fish and birds.  But Mr Parlour said the exercise was designed to raise awareness, not to clear the area ahead of the event.  He said: “I don’t think any of these items would cause any problems for swimmers. This is about encouraging people to take more responsibility, and to think about their actions.”

But Mr Parlour said overall, the area had got much better.  He said: “Things still get dropped in to the Sound, but over the last 10 years, the water quality has massively improved because of the sewage treatment works that have taken place, and projects.

“I can think of a number of incidents over the past few years where we have seen pods of dolphins in the Sound, and that’s something we hadn’t seen for a long time. Now, people will even eat shellfish caught in that area, whereas in the past, they might not have been so keen.”

Triple round-the-world sailor Conrad Humphreys, who is organising The Blue Mile, hopes the display of the litter they find will make people think twice before discarding rubbish into the sea.

“It’s quite thought-provoking to help people understand the shores and the marine environment, and to know that a lot of this stuff doesn’t just disappear when it’s thrown into the water.”

For more information about the Plymouth Dive Club, please go to http://www.plymouthdivers.org.uk/index.html.  For more information about The Blue Mile, please go to www.thebluemile.org.

Tags: Environment, Plymouth Sound Dive Club, Sport, The BLUE Mile, Undersea Litter Clean