BEACH Buddies created a new record at Ballaugh today (April 3rd 2016) when 63 volunteers gathered to collect record amounts of rubbish from the beach.

Beach Buddies has organised events with companies and schools where more people have attended, but today's number is the highest for a weekend volunteer event in its 10-year history.

It was also good to see that another ten new volunteers joined in today as "Beach Buddy Virgins"! These included a family from Staines in Middlesex, on the Island for the school holidays. Lots of families with children of all ages also took part today, which we hope is a good sign for the future.

The Beach Buddies' dog 'Goldie' also did some beach cleaning of his own - returning with plastic bottles from his wanders along the shoreline!

The amount of rubbish collected was also a record, with 86 bags, plus the usual large number of commercial fishing items, such as lobster pots, oil drums and ropes.

Thankfully, there were no more finds of oil drums full of used engine oil. However, the total number collected so far this year is now 24 which is well above the average, and it now looks like 2016 will, sadly, easily beat the 49 full barrels of oil collected during 2015.