CLEAN UP: Narooma Blue Water Dragons who helped out on Clean Up Australia Day were Kathryn Essex, Jane Mansergh, Susie Mahony, Ed Proudfoot, Leck Swadling, Heather McMillan, Helen Hayes, Sally Farrell, Judy Whiting, Merlene Russell, Peter Essex, Mark Russell, Jenni Greenland, Libby Shortridge and Gilly Kearney.
THIS year’s Clean Up Australia Day once again saw Narooma Blue Water Dragons come out in numbers to help keep Narooma’s foreshore clean.
On Saturday the crew paddled to Fosters Bay into a brisk southerly and beached next to The Quarterdeck before donning gloves and taking to Riverside Drive to clean up the usual array of cigarette butts, plastic bags, takeaway containers and other assorted rubbish.
Happily, the general consensus was that this year the area was the cleanest the Dragonboaters had seen since the club started participating in the event three years ago.
Club Captain, Gilly Kearney, who organised the clean up said, “Doing a quick survey of the collected items revealed some interesting feedback: By collecting all the cigarette butts - some 150 plus, we have managed to stop over 700 litres of water, becoming polluted - the chemicals in a single cigarette pollute about 7 litres of water”.
This year, visiting paddlers Mark and Marlene Russell from Manning River Dragon Boat Club, who were enjoying a holiday in Narooma, joined Blue Water Dragons for a paddle on our Beautiful Wagonga Inlet.
They were happy to volunteer their services to help with the clean up and despite the less than perfect weather were very impressed with our Dragon Boat friendly waterway.
Narooma Blue Water Dragons’ members are keen to make Narooma a Dragon Boat destination for the thousands of people who have taken up Australia’s fastest growing water sport. The construction of the club’s boat shed next to The Quarterdeck Café will be a major step forward in making that a reality.
Fundraising for the project will culminate in a 10km Paddle-a-thon on March 23 when the club’s boat will be paddled nonstop around Fosters Bay, Mill Bay and back to the club’s base at Barlow’s Bay.
Anybody who would like to contribute to this exciting project can contact the club by emailing narooma.bwd@gmail.com or phoning Gilly on 0422 272 805.
The Big Boat Shed Build can also be followed on Facebook.