A GROUP of dedicated divers is celebrating a decade of keeping the Pembrokeshire coast clean.

Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaners is a voluntary group which was founded in 2005 by local diver Dave Kennard.

Since then an army of volunteers has carried out hundreds of local dives, clearing the sea bed of litter such as plastic bags, shopping trolleys, bikes, cans and tyres.

Fishing gear is a common find, with divers collecting 10,000 weights over the years, equating to more than a tonne of lead, along with 6,500 fishing hooks and miles of fishing line.

The divers have also stumbled upon some more surprise discoveries, including satellite dishes, a Mitsubishi van and even a kitchen sink.

Just last week, with help from local fishermen, the group recovered 40 ghost fishing shellfish pots from the Dale Peninsula.

Mr Kennard said: “It’s amazing to have been going for 10 years. What started out as a mission to tackle marine litter that is often out of sight and out of mind, has grown into an established group with regular clean ups, hard working volunteers and strong partnerships with local schools, the community, fishermen and our funders. We are not trying to just protect our marine environment by collecting litter but also educate everyone to consider the conservation of our beautiful coastline.”

David Jones, NARC secretary, added: “There are a number of reasons that we have been able to carry on clean-up diving and raising awareness over the last 10 years, but the most important one is the dedication of the volunteers. Through bad weather, cold water and often terrible visibility, volunteers have continued to turn up, muck in and take part in grass roots marine conservation.

“We are unaware of any other group in the UK that has carried out continuous clean-up dives over such a long-time. We are looking forward to another 10 years and if possible helping others to get going.”

Blaise Bullimore is regular volunteer for the dive group. He said: “We regularly promote the negative impacts of marine litter and record data to report what we have recovered. But despite those figures being incredible, nothing quite communicates the danger than seeing it first hand when you are on the seabed. We must encourage sea users to wake up and consider the environment below the surface, and to all do their bit.”

If you are interested in joining NARC visit the group’s website www.narc-cc.org.uk