South Westland Coastal Cleanup

The March 2019 floods here in South Westland washed away an unknown amount of the Fox Glacier historic landfill and recycling station, situated next to the Fox Glacier river. This includes micro-plastics and agri-chemicals which are intangled in debris strewn along the 25km riverbed and washing up on our once pristine West Coast beaches, from Karangrua to Okarito North beach and potentially as far North as Hokitika beach.

This is now been named New Zealand's 'worst ecological disaster since the Rena oil spill.' Funds raised will be used to help with cleanup supplies and volunteer appreciation.

ALL RIVERS LEAD TO THE SEA - This shoreline is home to Okarito Marine Reserve, 5.75 nautical miles of homes for seals, hectors dolphins, southern right whales, orca, blue penguins, and over 70 species of birds/seabirds including eastern bar-tailed godwits, banded dotterels, Kotuku (white heron), royal spoonbills, white fronted terns, mollymawks & threatened black-billed gulls. The rarest of our kiwi, Rowi, have also recently been released on Okarito North Beach. This Marine reserve feeds into the Okarito Lagoon - the longest natural wetland in NZ.

Previous Givealittle page: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/south-westland-coastal-cleanup

UPDATE: We are now doing this without any support from central government or the Westland District Council, they have halted any operations as of Friday 31st May. This doesn't mean that we're going to give up. We will continue on independently, with our own resources, and we'll do the job ourselves. But we need your help through this page.