My husband and I are into our second year of cruising the Med. a long way from our home in Australia. We bought our boat in France and are now in Turkey, which of course, as anyone who has been there knows, has a perfect cruising coastline. Plenty of beautiful isolated little bays where an anchor can be dropped for the night or a lunch stop.

However, we are dismayed at the amount of rubbish – mostly plastic – that is washed up on the shore of these very same little bays. We have taken to taking a couple of large garbage bags ashore with us and picking up anything that will not decompose. It is amazing how quickly a bag can be filled and also what a difference it makes to the shoreline.

I think as so many come from all parts of the globe to enjoy this area, it is our responsibility to keep it as pristine as possible. So I would like to put the challenge out to everyone to do their bit and take away just a few bags of rubbish.

I know the Turkish councils are doing their best to educate the Turkish people about keeping the environment clean and Turkey is certainly not the only country, and certainly not the worst, in the Med, but let’s see if we can’t leave it as spotless as we would like to find it.

Dimity McMurtrie