Litter pickers, gloves, rubbish bags & hi-vis jackets can be collected here (feel free to bring your own). Please wait for the short health & safety chat and instructions on dealing with unexpected hazards/ordnance .
We can't guarantee the weather but you can be sure of a cuppa, a bun and a bit of craic after the clean-up & feel free to bring your own picnic too. (Biccie Cake may also make an appearance). A few travel bugs & geocoins may even appear to be discovered or grabbed!
If you wish really hard the cache fairy may wave her magic wand and a new cache may appear too…so be extra good! (And there may be a carrot to find there too!)
‘Keep NI Beautiful’ (formerly ‘TIDY Northern Ireland’) have once again invited geocachers to be part of the Marine Litter Survey Programme. KNIB are monitoring the level of beach litter at fourteen beaches in Northern Ireland one of which is Minearney Beach. To meet the programme criteria, each beach will need to be cleared of rubbish following the litter survey to ensure that items are not counted twice…that is where our CITO comes in!
The OSPAR Commission run a programme with fifteen countries within Europe to co-operate to protect the marine environment of the North East Atlantic. The data collected is vitally important as it will help provide an overview of the problem of marine litter not only in Northern Ireland but across the whole of North East Atlantic. The data will then be used to help to formulate solutions to address the problem of marine litter.
WARNING: Live Ordnance has been found on Minearney Beach, most recently during the litter count, and has been safely destroyed by military specialists. There is a risk that more may be uncovered by tides by the time we CITO. Please abide by all safety advice & instruction on the day.
There will be further CITOs over the coming year so if you can’t make this one you may make it to another. We plan to visit several different locations so that almost everyone has the opportunity to attend a CITO reasonably close to their home ground – but feel free to come along to any or all! Don't forget International CITO week, possibly Himalayan Balsam pulling along the Lagan Towpath.
Most importantly off all - HAVE FUN - and look after each other!