Day 4

We started the morning in Bond Bay with ideal surfing conditions - two rocky point breaks and 3-4ft waves off Earls point. Some long rides were enjoyed and a pod of dolphins spotted. After everyone was surfed out with rumbling stomachs from a few good hours in the water, the crew motored through 5-6 metres of south west swell to Spain Bay. We then hit the shore and made the muddy trek to Stephens Bay under some long awaited blue sky. We were greeted with a spectacular coastal and mountainous ocean swell. 

We were met at the end of the track with a pile of debris previously collected by none other than our own Dave Wyatt and left for us to find. In comparison to the previous year we found more micro plastics and less large debris. After the long walk combing the beach for plastic specs we were rewarded with spectacular, thousands of years old, middens left by the original custodians of the land.

We had been warned of a large mass of plastic on the beach that did not fail to disappoint. We discovered a couple of square metres worth of melted plastic bags and squid jigs covered with Korean writing and pictures of fish. Despite our efforts we were unsuccessful in excavating the whole thing, but managed to cut away some chunks which were dragged along the beach on a hessian bag by Alex and Will, ready to be collected on the way home. There's been many suggestions about how we might get the mass off the beach in calmer conditions.

 

We hauled our debris back to Spain Bay where we were met by intrepid kayakers Lin and Tim who had battled the 6 metre swell all the way from New Harbour into Spain Bay. We returned to the boats to refuel and commenced the count. Our final number was 7255 pieces of macro and micro debris for the day.