M Y  4 6 0 0 0  C H A L L E N G E

According to a United Nations report issued in June 2006, humankind's exploitation of the the deep seas and oceans is 'rapidly passing the point of no return'. I was really shocked to discover that there are on average around 46,000 pieces of plastic litter per square mile of ocean worldwide, leading to the death of over one million seabirds and over 100,000 marine mammals every year due to entanglement with or swallowing litter. Moreover, Greenpeace recently discovered that there is a vortex of floating pieces of plastic in the southern Pacific which is the size of Texas. Even worse, plastic can take 1000 years or more to degrade in seawater and even then continues to pollute our environment with thousands of microscopic fibres: samples of sand taken from a Northumbrian beach were found to have over 10,000 fibres per litre of sand...

I was so shocked that I was determined to do something about it. So I resolved to 'save' one square mile of ocean by collecting 46000 pieces of litter whilst walking on the beaches near my home. Every time I visited the beach I took 3 or 4 carrier bags and picked up all the litter I could carry. Whilst walking, I raised nearly £1000 for the Marine Conservation Society through sponsorship and sale of my unique seaside ‘souvenirs’. You can do your own bit to help by joining in the Marine Conservation Society's Coastal Challenge or by taking part in local river or beach clean-ups, such as Beachwatch.

My challenge took exactly a year to achieve - in total I walked over 200kms and carried away nearly a third of a tonne of rubbish!

Whilst walking, I took photographs and created a book of what I saw, contrasting the seemingly unspoilt beauty of the landscape with the man-made debris which inhabits it. Click here to see my photographs in sequence from the beginning of my challenge.
To see specific locations, click the following links: Aldeburgh   Bawdsey   Covehythe   Dunwich  Felixstowe   Orford Ness   Shingle Street   Sizewell   Southwold   Thorpeness   Walberswick

I have saved and photographed nearly everything from my walks - see some of my COLLECTIONS here

	Last summer I took my collection of litter into the gallery with a solo exhibition at Babylon Gallery in Ely where I was the 2007 bursary artist. Click on the pictures below to see photographs of the exhibition.
	See comments from the exhibition

	LANDGUARD FORT   Walking to save some sea was installed at Landguard Fort in Felixstowe from 21st March until 5th May 2008. Click here to see images from the exhibition. For details see press release March 2008 Special open day event on 5th May Bank holiday - see details

Earlier press releases: press release Sept 2007  press release May 2007    press release October 2006

OK, so one square mile isn't much and it may have taken me a year to do it but what if EVERYONE tried to do something? If you've got any brilliant ideas or want to tell us about what you've done, let me know what you're up to - and where - and e-mail me some photos and I'll post a link here. Let's do our bit now!!!!

remember when visiting our coastline and wild places, leave nothing but your footprint...