Conserving and restoring ecosystems

On September 16 2017, staff of Lake Superior NMCA from both the Visitor Experience and Resource Conservation teams participated in a beach cleanup at Gravel Bay / Mountain Bay Road, as part of the International Coastal Cleanup program. A total of 37 people took part, including residents, representatives of the Nipigon Bay Remedial Action Plan, as well as staff and students of Lakehead University. They covered an estimated 5 km of shoreline, collecting about 22 kg (50 lb) of trash. Among the unusual articles found were an old fuel drum, a 6⁺ metre length of rubberized tubing, and an asthma puffer. One section of the project focussed on the nurdles, gathering an estimated 198,000 of these plastic beads. Some of these were separated and sent to a Japanese research team leading a project analyzing contaminants in plastic pellets on an international scale.