Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup - History

History

In 1994, a small group of employees and volunteers at the Vancouver Aquarium decided to protect the shorelines of Vancouver by cleaning up a local beach, and submitted data collected from their cleanup to the International Coastal Cleanup. By 1997, the project became known as the Great BC Beach Cleanup and with 400 volunteers cleaning and collecting data from 20 sites across the Lower Mainland annually. As the program continue to expand, cleanup locations started to pop-up in the interior of BC highlight the connection between inland bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes, to the ocean. In 2001, the initiative expanded into Alberta and became known as the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. By 2003, cleanups were happening in every province and territory of Canada as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.

Every year, organizations in select cities host larger events where community members can drop in to clean a local shoreline, some of these cities include, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Halifax. Every participating cleanup submits information on what items are collected, how many items of each are collected and what animals or aquatic life is found affected by marine debris (i.e. entangled or dead). This data is compiled and then sent to The Ocean Conservancy. With this information, reports are produced examining the impacts of marine debris on the environment; for example, Marine Debris: A Focus for Community Engagement, a report by Paul Topping presented at the Coastal Zone Canada Conference in 2000.