Under a circle of surfboards off the coast of North Wollongong, Susie Crick felt the ocean grow strangely calm for a few moments. The stillness seemed poetic, falling on Saturday morning in the midst of a one minute’s silence for the late Clean Up Australia founder Ian Kiernan.
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“The ocean literally stood still,” said Ms Crick, Surfrider Foundation Australia’s chair. “It was really beautiful and it moved everyone.”
“It was a very fitting tribute to a man whose flame started a fire across the world, with regard to keeping our marine environment clean.”
The paddle out was part of a cleaning blitz at North Gong Beach, hosted by the foundation four days after Kiernan’s death.
Scores of of junior surfers took part in a tag team event, with riders rewarded for cleaning the beach and correctly answering questions about marine pollution.
Wollongong Freedivers also scoured the bottom of Belmore Basin, meeting murky conditions to pull rubbish – mainly fishing tackle and bait bags, straws and bottles – from the ocean floor.
There were few plastic bags in the dirty haul. Ms Crick is among those who hope a state-wide ban on plastic bags will be Kiernan’s legacy.
“The project Ian was giving so much time to off late was Ban the Bag in NSW,” she said. “Environmental organisation are really pushing hard to get this through now, and we hope we can do this in honour of Ian.”
The Surfrider Illawarra Clean Beach Festival, now in its third year, is to return in 2019.