Samson gets a spruce-up with beach clean
Islanders and visitors picked up 20 bags of rubbish during the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust's Clean up for Cupcakes event on Saturday.
Volunteers were asked to clean the coastline and beaches of Samson, with the reward of a cupcake from Becky's Scilly Cakes.
The beach clean coincided with Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup Day, the National Association of AONBs' Outstanding Week and the Marine Conservation Society's Great British Beach Clean.
Some 34 people collected about 20 sacks worth of rubbish and some larger items, just over half of which will be recycled.
The Wildlife Trust's Nikki Banfield wrote on social media: "We were joined by lots of lovely bods (pretty sure the Becky Scilly Cakes Cupcakes were responsible for that!) and we removed all the marine debris you can see in this photo from the uninhabited island.
"The right hand pile is rigid plastics (mostly plastic bottles) and will be recycled via TerraCycle, the left hand pile sadly will not and will be disposed of by the Council of the Isles of Scilly, but the green net is heading off to make what we are sure will be the best den that Rocky Hill has ever seen! "Thank you everyone for supporting this event and a massive thanks to John and Will of St Agnes Boating who 'bussed' us and our rubbish around."
Nikki revealed that items removed from Samson included hundreds of plastic bottles, a fluorescent light tube, lobster trap vent and bait jar from Canada/America, lobster pots from the UK, Polystyrene, rope and net.
"Oh and a £10 note which went unclaimed and has been donated to the Trust," she added.
Councillors recently banned the release of balloons, sky lanterns and non-biodegradable streamers on Council land.