Breakwater Blitz, 15 October

Save the date! The marina has given its blessing for a litter-picking blitz to go ahead on the eastern breakwater, from about midday on Saturday 15 October.

Associated with this, we’ll also be taking part in the Great Nurdle Hunt. We collected thousands of these pesky little pellets back in 2019, and they became part of an art project by Maarten Vanden Eynde in Belgium (see video below). Maarten has recently been in touch asking if we can send more, for the next stage of this project. 

A 2019 Breakwater Blitz haul. Photo by Rachel Holburn, who organised events throughout the year

The event is timed for low tide (1.7m), but everyone going out on to the breakwater must wear a lifejacket. I will provide rubbish bags, buckets and gloves, and a couple of litter-picking sticks. Please wear sturdy shoes in case of broken glass etc, and clothes that you don’t mind getting a bit grubby. 

Getting down to the nitty gritty in 2019. Photo by Rachel Holburn

As ever the Breakwater Blitz is weather-dependent – if it’s heaving with rain or too windy we’ll convene another day. Hopefully we’ll get a good day and help keep our beautiful firth clean.

One of 2019’s Blitz crews. Photo by Rachel Holburn

Below is a video of Maarten’s project, Check Mate – it’s not in English, but you can see the idea. For next year’s exhibition he’s working on square 20, which will require 524,288 nurdles.