CONSERVE
BEACH BUDDIES
The tiny Isle of Man is punching above its weight in the environment stakes and Hurtigruten Expeditions' guests are joining the fight.
WORDS KATE ROBERTSON
CONSERVE
BEACH BUDDIES
The tiny Isle of Man is punching above its weight in the environment stakes and Hurtigruten Expeditions' guests are joining the fight.
WORDS KATE ROBERTSON
Watch full video here
The Isle of Man, slap bang in the middle of the British Isles and wedged between Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England, is a strikingly beautiful island nation edged by beaches and cliffs, infilled with mountains, rivers, lakes, forests and wetlands.
The 53-kilometre-long island has hosted a rich mix of Viking settlers, missionaries and kings but its more recent claim to fame is as a leader in the global fight against plastic pollution.
"They say if you go to the top of our highest mountain on a clear day you can see seven kingdoms — Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and number seven is the Kingdom of Heaven."
UNESCO has awarded the Isle of Man Biosphere Reserve status.
Bill Dale was born on the Isle of Man and spent much of his childhood playing on its pristine beaches. So, in 2006, when his dogs trotted over to him with plastic bottles they’d retrieved from the sand dunes, Bill went to investigate. "Plastic bottles were there in their thousands. It was an eye opener." Disgusted, Bill and his then-partner spent the next six weeks cleaning up rubbish.
Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale.
"We collected 30,000 plastic bottles — from one beach. They were buried about two or three feet under the ground. You picked one up and there was one underneath, and another, and another. It was ridiculous." The couple continued to pick up the rubbish on weekends for a few years. Until, overwhelmed by the task of cleaning kilometres of beaches and coves, Bill put out a press release calling for volunteers to help.
"Amazingly 45 people turned up. So, I ran another event the following weekend at the other end of the island and 40 different people turned up. By the end of the first year, I had 1,500."
"Amazingly 45 people turned up. So, I ran another event the following weekend at the other end of the island and 40 different people turned up. By the end of the first year, I had 1,500."
Locals have been strong supporters of the cleanup efforts.
"They say if you go to the top of our highest mountain on a clear day you can see seven kingdoms — Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man and number seven is the Kingdom of Heaven." And so, the not-for-profit organisation Beach Buddies was born, running weekly beach clean ups plus corporate days and education sessions in schools.
Beach Buddies has expanded beyond beaches to areas including Ben Nevis.
Bill's dogs were the inspiration for Beach Buddies.
Since Bill’s dogs found those first bottles, more than 18,500 volunteers have taken part in an Isle of Man Beach Buddies clean up. Those volunteer numbers include Hurtigruten Expeditions passengers who have chosen to take part in Beach Buddies as an optional on-island activity during their British Isles cruise. "This year we had close to 400 Hurtigruten guests from all over the world taking part in beach cleaning," Bill says. Initially, he was surprised at the strong and positive response from the passengers.
Hurtigruten guests taking part in a Beach Buddies session.
"You could see they were emotional, and genuinely moved by the experience," Bill says. "I think that in recent years there has been a significant raising of awareness of the problem of trash in the oceans. It has reached a crisis point. People are despondent where they find items from all over the world on a little beach on the Isle of Man, but what we've done is brought it back down to nuts and bolts — stop throwing rubbish in the street, set an example by actually picking rubbish up, get people to take part and, almost all to a man and a woman, they’ll say they cannot believe how much they enjoyed being involved in an activity with a purpose."
Feedback from guests has been overwhelmingly positive.
Castletown Bay on the Isle of Man receiving some Beach Buddy love.
Isle of Man’s former Lieutenant Governor Sir Richard Gozney presents Bill Dale with the British Empire Medal for his beach cleaning efforts.
The Beach Buddies message is spreading globally, with branches opening in places as far apart as Wales and Hong Kong. The organisation is also leveraging the Isle of Man’s UNESCO Biosphere Reserve status to create the world’s biggest ever single coordinated campaign to tackle pollution; all 120 of the countries with a biosphere area will be encouraged to follow the Beach Buddies lead in tackling marine pollution through education about the correct disposal and recycling of plastics and other materials damaging to marine ecosystems, and setting up community clean-up teams in all the biosphere reserves.
"I have dozens and dozens of people who are sending in photographs of places where they are disappointed because there's not enough rubbish."
It is becoming increasingly difficult to find rubbish on local beaches thanks to Beach Buddies' volunteers.
Meanwhile, Bill is enjoying feedback from local volunteers about the lack of plastic on the Isle of Man’s beaches. "I have dozens and dozens of people who are sending in photographs of places where they are disappointed because there's not enough rubbish. "It's staggering. Whoever thought this was going to happen? All I wanted to do was clean up one beach after six weekends, go home and open a bottle of wine, but I have been out pretty much every Sunday since 2006."