Friends of Cortes Island would like to offer huge thanks to everyone who took part in the second annual whole island Big Beach Clean up.

Enormous thanks to everyone who collected garbage off the beaches. It was fantastic to see all the super sacks around the island getting filled up and the large amount of garbage that was collected – a total of 1150Kg! There was everything from buoys and large blocks of Styrofoam to flip flops, lighters and even a kitchen sink!

Thanks also to the people who also individually collected and dropped off marine garbage at our drop of day on Saturday, and to our amazing helpers Sam, Autum, Kenny and Stephanie who sorted it for recycling.

Huge thanks too to our fantastic partners who helped make it all possible:

Klahoose Aquaculture, Kenny and Paul for hosting the Ocean Legacy Bin

Comox Strathcona Waste Management, and Stephanie Vidal for invaluable support in supplying the Bin and the super sacks and getting everything sent off to be recycled

10 000 Whales and Leslie Mack-Mumford for the very generous sponsorship of the event

Hollyhock and HACI for hosting super sacks

Ocean Legacy Foundation for sponsoring the bin and super sacks

All in all a fantastic community effort, and so awesome to the garbage off the beaches, out of the ocean and off to be recycled!