Pride in the playa, local school children do their bit for Mojacar

A group of children from a Mojacar high school took on a huge project as they spent a morning cleaning up an area of the beach.

Some 60 children from the IES Rey Alabez School, accompanied by three teachers, scoured the beaches of Playa Villazar, La Rumina and Descargador for waste.

The students, aged between 12 and 16, also catalogued and identified various species of flora and fauna found during the morning’s work.

Teacher Victor Serrano, told Euro Weekly News: “The children relish this type of activity, they take a pride in the beaches of their town and enjoy getting out of the classroom.”

The project forms part of the Junta de Andalucia coastal care educational programme and official questionnaires were used to log all the findings.

The captured data will be added to a central database and will contribute to a report, published annually describing the state of the beaches throughout Andalucia.

In the weeks following the inspection and clean-up, the students will study the items collected and present their findings in a special class session.

Serrano said the results of the project showed that in general the beaches were in a “pretty good state.”

Evidence of algae and Posidonia sea grass was found, as well as the presence of gulls, cormorants and sandpipers. The wealth of biodiversity indicated a good level of water cleanliness and absence of contamination.

On the flipside, the students collected more than 10 bags of waste, with items including mainly glass and plastic along with shoes, toys and used nappies.

Student Liam Gagliardi Simpson, aged 12, took part in the project and told Euro Weekly News: “It was very interesting to learn about the creatures that live on the beaches but I was sad to see so much litter.”