St Andrews Marine Society – engaging students with our blue planet
St Andrews Marine Society (Marine Soc) has run Saturday beach cleans on St Andrews beaches almost every week since it was founded in 2020. Each year the estimated rubbish collected is estimated to be just under 300kg.
One beach, Aquarium Sands, is a particular favourite for these cleans as the local tides and narrow shape of the beach make it prone to collecting rubbish. Marine Soc works closely with the Marine Conservation Society UK, which supplies them with their beach clean equipment for free, in return for quarterly beach clean reports, which involve Marine Soc recording the types of rubbish found in one of their cleans. The types of rubbish found most often on Aquarium sands are wet wipes (at least 50 each week) and fishing gear. Other Marine Soc activities include rock-pooling, sea glass foraging, documentary screenings, pub quizzes, and Marine Biology career talks from guest speakers such as Love the Oceans.