Making Worthing beach beautiful

The fourth annual Worthing Marine Conservation Society beach clean organised by Barbara Shaw of Transition Worthing brought together people of all ages not only to clean the beach but to be educated about it.

Marine biologist Steve Savage was on hand to answer any questions and to help document the group’s findings.

Barbara Shaw said: “There are areas of plastic the size of Texas floating around in the sea. It’s a big moving cluster of disintegrating plastic.

“We try and sample the rubbish on the beach and mark our findings in a survey.”

The cleaning operation was also carried out in partnership with the new Worthing Catchbox initiative and owner of the Fish Factory restaurants, Andy Sparsis.

Anne Weinhold, co-founder of Catchbox Worthing, said: “The scheme operates in a way that we work with local fishermen and provide them with a regular income for an eight week season.

“Whatever they catch we will take. We pay them a flat fee per kilogram and then take the fish to our pick up point at St Paul’s where our members collect the fish. It’s both social and educational.”

Catchbox is a non-profit organisation with all proceeds covering the cost of the fish. They charge £6 per kilogram of fish or £7 for a kilogram of filleted fish.

For the full story, see the Worthing Herald, Thursday, September 26.