World Oceans Day Swim helping fund marine clean-ups

The event, which raises money entirely for Breathe Conservation, will once again be a chance for the team to highlight the plight of the reefs in the world’s oceans and the importance of helping them as a habitat for thousands of marine species.

From their start in 2020, Breathe and their ever-increasing list of volunteers have played a large part in removing plastic and other debris from the reefs off the Durban beaches and for Breathe Conservation’s Sarah Ferguson, they feel that what they do is making a difference.

"On the 19th September 2020, we hosted our very first Reef and Beach Clean-up on 'International Coastal Clean-up Day'," Ferguson said.

"We started this initiative to not only make a tangible difference to the wellbeing of the reef but also to get the local community excited about this special place right on our doorstep.

"Our monthly events have gone from strength to strength and has become a highlight on the calendar of ocean lovers.

"There are many beach cleaning initiatives in our city but we saw a need to clean up underwater and found this to be a great opportunity to educate the community on the threats facing our marine environment."

Given the devastation of the recent floods that have ravaged the Durban coastline, Ferguson believes that it’s important that they get to work as quickly as possible.

“We’ve seen so many beach clean-ups since the floods and the amount of effort put in by the people of Durban has been incredible.

“It’s important that we continue that work and make sure we do as much as we can to clean the ocean because it’s crucial that we preserve the incredible marine life that lives off our coastline,” Ferguson added.

The next clean-up that the Breathe Conservation team have planned happens on 14 May at Vetch’s Beach.