This past month, Matthew Bicknell, an outdoor enthusiast and local Mountain Equipment Co-op run club leader, began a challenge that would open his eyes to a far-reaching and often overwhelming problem: single-use plastics winding up in places where they have no business being. Matthew signed the #BePlasticWise pledge and started getting outdoors with his MEC … Continued
Girl Guides of Canada is a non-profit organization that focuses on empowering young women in an inclusive atmosphere and supporting the vision of creating “a better world by girls.” I am a proud Guider of the 1st Port Morien Pathfinders, located on the beautiful Eastern coast of Cape Breton Island. We do a shoreline cleanup every … Continued
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup welcomes the City of Hamilton as the latest official Clean Shoreline Community. Hamilton joins the cities of Calgary, Vancouver and the District of West Vancouver in adopting the green designation awarded by the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, one of the largest direct-action conservation programs in Canada. The partnership supports Our Future … Continued
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup is pleased to welcome the District of West Vancouver as an official Clean Shoreline Community, joining Calgary, Hamilton and Vancouver as the latest Canadian city to adopt the green designation awarded by one of the largest direct-action conservation programs in Canada. West Vancouver celebrated its first Clean Shoreline Community cleanup … Continued
For its 25-year anniversary, the Great Canadian Shoreline is celebrating with a special monthly Cleanup Challenge. This spring, summer and fall, we’ll challenge different teams to lead the way for shorelines. From schools and students, communities and co-workers, we’re looking forward to the amazing work done by diverse cleanup teams across Canada. Sound like fun? … Continued
In 1994, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup began with a humble act. Vancouver Aquarium employees and volunteers decided to clean a beach in Stanley Park to protect wildlife in their own backyard. Since then, the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, a conservation partnership by Ocean Wise and WWF-Canada, has logged over 791,500 volunteers cleaning their ocean, lake, river, … Continued
Did you know that hundreds of thousands of youth have participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup? Across Canada, many fantastic youth teams take part, including two national youth-service agencies Girl Guides of Canada and Scouts Canada. If you were a scout or a guide, you might remember receiving a crest for taking part in an … Continued
Call us trend followers, but as soon as we here at the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup heard about plogging, we immediately jumped on board. The new fitness craze, started in Sweden, combines picking up litter with jogging. Hence: plogging. It can be done solo or with a team of friends and colleagues. It’s all about … Continued
Tiny plastic and foam fragments topped the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup’s annual “Dirty Dozen” list, which reports on the types of litter most commonly found on Canada’s marine and freshwater shores. More than 330,000 tiny pieces of plastic and foam debris were collected by Shoreline Cleanup volunteers – from 1,849 cleanups that covered nearly 3,000 … Continued
Today is the 10-year anniversary of a cargo-train derailment near Chuck Hutterli’s town of Mountain Bay, Ontario. Those rail cars contained nurdles — small beads of virgin plastic, about the size of a lentil, that are melted into new plastic products. Billions of microplastics spilled into Lake Superior that day and Chuck has been fighting … Continued
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Ocean Wise is based in the traditional and unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We work across Turtle Island and beyond, supporting Indigenous peoples in their vital work on ocean conservation and biodiversity whenever possible or as we are invited to.