The Nautilus Project have celebrated the 6th anniversary of the Great Gibraltar Beach Cleans initiative.

A statement from the Nautilus Project follows below:

The Great Gibraltar Beach Cleans initiative kickstarted 6 years ago at Historic Rosia Bay on 18^th February 2017. It’s been quite the rollercoaster, cleaning up the whole of the Gibraltar coastline on a rotational basis and achieving this milestone. For the Nautilus team it made all the sense in the world to host the 100^th #TGGBC at Rosia Bay, a double whammy; 2 milestones in one day: 100 cleans and the 6^th anniversary.

Inspired by two young boys, Alex and AJ, this initiative has turned into massive community labour of love. Thank you for your support Gibraltar!

We were joined by Diving with Nic and the Resolve Marine Dive team. These two groups joined forces and hauled hundreds of glass bottles, ropes, fishing lures, nets and even a TV!

Based at the Critter Station, we had Nautilus core members Brian and Desiree, meticulously checking through every item retrieved from the basin. Hundreds of tiny critters, including crabs, spider crabs, brittle stars, sea urchins, chitons, polychaete worms and more, were found amidst the rubbish and separated onto a separate salt water vat. These were then returned safely back to the ocean.

The Clubhouse, Gold Duke Of Edinburgh, students from Prior Park and the College of Further Education joined members from the public and scoured the whole area and revetments scooping up all the debris lying around.

A special mention to Paco Aquilina, for trundling down not only to help out but bringing down a chocolate cake to celebrate the landmark, and enjoyed by all the volunteers.  Ecopark collected all the refuse, weighing in at 460kg, in just 90 minutes! Team work certainly does make the dream work! Here’s to the next 100 cleans whilst hoping we turn the tide and we’ll turn this problem around before!