Beachy Head & Seven Sisters Extreme Plastic Objects Removal
Working together with BhassExplore
BHASSEXPLORE is a cooperative, a collective, a foundation, with the sole purpose of removing as much plastic and man made debris and junk from, what should be, the pristine and absolutely amazing, iconic and stunning coastal habitat that is the Beachy Head and Seven Sisters chalk cliffs landscape......
From Cuckmere Haven through to Holywell, adjacent to the town of Eastbourne in East Sussex, this virtually wild and untamed stretch (about 5.5 miles) of coast is a jewel of a place and an important habitat with an incredible history and story to tell...
Both geologically and historically it is a fascinating place and many coastal species exist in its myriad of micro niche environments...
BHASSEXPLORE's mission is to locate, document and remove as much of this detritus as is humanly possible from this incredible marine and geological masterpiece of an environment . . .
Over the past fifty years or more, extreme amounts of all kinds of plastic flotsam and jetsom have found their way into the jagged rock pools and onto remote coves, pushed there by the relentless tides and frequent storms and deposited in the most remote and inaccessible crevices and up against the majestic chalk and flint cliff bases...
Their task is made all the harder by the relative inaccessibility and somewhat dangerously rugged and twice daily tidal challenges presented by a continuously changing and constantly eroding landscape and towering cliffs which dominate the entire region...
TIDES AND WEATHER CONDITIONS
These can appear benign but at their most gentle, can present many dangers, which will be amplified many fold at times on this stretch of coast and can change abruptly catching people unaware and placing them in extreme danger.
Dangers ebb and flow with the tides as a multitude of different rock and pebble underfoot conditions become exposed....or disappear. Coupled with windy, wet or stormy weather even the most experienced adventurer and explorer will face difficulties and become imperiled by the slightest lapse in observance and concentration to the immediate and short term future conditions...
All these elements combine to make it a magnet for plastic waste of all varieties. Plastics and foams and styrenes from every boat and ship, from every stream and river, from every beach along the south coast and the English Channel ends up in this area, trapped and ensnared in the coves and on the rocks, deposited by super high tides and storms and trapped against the ever more frequent cliff falls, some of this manmade pollutant, one that we are all involved in to some extent or another, along with tonnes of fishing industries equipment, is up to fifty years old and slowly breaking down into smaller and smaller parts into what should be a pristine environment...