Volunteers clear beach of fishing junk after storm

Volunteers have spent five days clearing a beach after large amounts of rubbish from fishing vessels were dumped there by a storm.

Weymouth and Portland Marine Litter Project appealed for help on Saturday after strong winds and rough seas left Chesil Cove, Dorset, covered in fishing nets, ropes and other marine litter.

Organiser Dave Taylor said the operation was "quite hard" but he was heartened by the number of people who arrived to help.

He said: "There were people off-and-on all weekend and a group of sea swimmers came to help on the last day."

Taylor said there was always a race against time whenever rubbish was washed up to prevent it being washed back out again.

"It's a common occurrence but it hasn't been that bad since 2023. We haven't had any for ages.

"Someone sent me a photo and I thought 'I can't leave that'.

"It was 90% fishing stuff - nets, ropes, fishing boxes - stuff like that."

The Chesil Cove clean-up began the same weekend as the Great British Beach Clean, which was also co-ordinated in Weymouth by the Marine Litter Project.

Taylor said: "It was a grey day and I though no-one's going to turn up.

"The whole beach was full of people. Over the whole weekend the community support was really strong."