The Friends of Bangor Garth Pier are proud to be supporting the #LoveTheMenai Campaign with the Menai Strait Partnership Forum to help to showcase the importance of the Strait and the need to protect it.
The campaign aims to raise awareness of how businesses and the community can come together to improve the water quality of the Menai Strait.
Said Avril Wayte, Chair of FBGP, “The pier is above the Menai Strait and is the reason that the pier was built so we feel connected to the Strait, and it is integral to the pier and its future.”
FBGP volunteer Charlotte Maloney has a special interest in the campaign as she is not only studying marine biology and oceanography at the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor University but is also volunteering with the North Wales River Trust. She has just completed the NWRT training to survey the water quality on the Menai and the local rivers, the Cegin and the Ogwen, that feed into it.
Said Charlotte, “It is really important to check the water quality of the Menai so that measures can be put in place to keep it healthy and support its unique ecosystems which will benefit wildlife, businesses and recreation. We will be taking samples of the water and identifying pollution by chemical testing which can identify sewage or run off from fertilizers.”
The pier is also playing its part in improving water quality. During the recent renovations a soil pipe was fitted that runs almost the entire length of the pier from the toilets at the Pavilion café back to the shore. This means that the waste is no longer discharged into the Strait as it had been in the past.
So, what can we do? Visitors to the pier can help by putting all their litter in the bin, by not throwing anything into the water and by bagging and binning dog poo.
“If you see sewage or a spill along the Menai Strait report it to Natural Resources Wales by phoning 0300 065 3000,” added Charlotte.
