Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation
Shoreline &Nearshore Underwater Clean-up

The three Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation community shoreline clean-up events, hosted by the Rondeau Bay Watershed Rehabilitation Program in 1995, 1996 and 1998 were very successful. In all, 337 enthusiastic volunteers removed 18.51 metric tonnes of garbage, in a period of 10 hours, as they walked, boated and canoed along Rondeau Bay’s northwest shoreline and SCUBA dived in the channel entering Rondeau Bay.

Of concern are items that are more than just an eyesore, but can represent dangerous health and environmental problems. Pesticide, paint and other chemical containers; automotive batteries; tires; refrigerators and motors can leach toxic substances into the environment. These substances can have detrimental effects on the health of fish and wildlife populations and constitute a water quality concern to communities and individuals who draw their drinking water from Lake Erie. Although chemical concentrations may be below detection levels or standardized levels of concern, the long-term chronic health effects are not well understood.

Garbage can also inflict physical harm to wildlife. Birds, snakes, frogs, turtles, fish and other wildlife can choke on plastic wrappers and rubber balloons ingested as food. Tossed pop and beer can carriers and discarded fishing line can entangle birds, like great blue herons, restricting their movement or strangling them. Lost fishing tackle, accidentally eaten as food, can damage internal organs or prevent feeding if it becomes lodged in an animal’s mouth. These situations can lead to increased susceptibility to disease and predation, starvation and/or death.

The RBWRP's first clean-up event, Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation 1995, was a tremendous success with 107 volunteers removing a whopping 7.94 tonnes of garbage from the Rondeau Bay shoreline and channel in just over three hours.

On Sunday, June 9th, 93 volunteers arrived ready to participate in Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation 1996. Poor visibility forced the rescheduling of the planned SCUBA dive. In addition, windy conditions restricted canoers to the north end of the Bay. Despite these setbacks and weather predictions of rain and possible thunder storms, 76 volunteers in 8 boats, 7 canoes and on foot scoured the shoreline. In just under 4 hours, approximately 3.5 metric tonnes of garbage was removed for disposal.

Weather conditions favoured SCUBA divers on the evening of Monday, August 12th for the rescheduled Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation 1996 clean-up of the channel entering Rondeau Bay at Erieau. The event drew 45 divers with an additional 15 volunteers providing on-shore assistance.

On Sunday, June 14th, 112 volunteers arrived ready to lend a helping hand in Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation 1998. Despite some threatening clouds earlier in the day, the afternoon was cool with a mix of sun and clouds affording comfortable working conditions. Volunteers in 7 boats, 10 canoes and 57 on foot scoured the shoreline for 3 hours. Four pick-up trucks and a dump truck hauled garbage to the dumpsters. Twenty SCUBA divers with on-shore assistance, including a 14 tonne mobile crane, lifted trash out of the channel from the pier at Erieau. By the end of the day 4.44 tonnes of garbage had been collected for proper disposal.

A pre-dive conducted by the Kent Diver’s Association on the Thursday prior to the clean-up identified two large objects, previously located during a side scan of the Erieau channel, as cars. The Ontario Provincial Police were contacted and a special dive team from Gravenhurst attended the clean-up to recover the vehicles. The combined weight of these vehicles was estimated at 2.63 tonnes.

These events have focussed attention on the beauty and biological significance of the area and the negative impact that improper garbage disposal can have on wildlife and aesthetics. Garbage removal has reduced the amount of leachate reaching the aquatic environment (e.g. from improperly disposed tires and automotive batteries) and has restored the area's natural beauty, making the waterfront cleaner and safer. Improved water quality and aquatic habitat conditions result, as do reduced injuries suffered to wildlife from entanglement in fishing line and plastic can carriers. Participation, media attention and the resulting cleaner, more aesthetically pleasing shoreline serve to increase local interest in natural areas and environmental protection and develop a stronger sense of community ownership of the Bay.

Garbage collected included:

Partners:

The following groups and organizations contributed to making Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation the tremendous success that it is. The efforts of all groups, organizations and individuals have made the Rondeau Bay shoreline cleaner, safer and more beautiful.

Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation only represents an initial, temporary solution to the problem of garbage dumping and littering. A permanent solution lies with the public. More individuals and groups need to become actively involved in maintaining the health and beauty of Rondeau Bay. Everyone needs to do their part to keep the Bay clean on an ongoing basis to ensure our environment remains safe for us, our children, and the area’s wildlife. Garbage dumping needs to be reported to the authorities, children need to be taught of the dangers that garbage can pose to wildlife and people need to be encouraged not to litter. Rondeau Bay Rejuvenation is aimed not only at cleaning up the Bay but raising the necessary public awareness to ensure that it remains clean in the future. We thank you for contributing to the successful implementation of this initiative.

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