Last Friday, a solo coastal clean-up took to some of Malta and Gozo’s most hard-to-reach shorelines, with a little help from trusty sidekick Gorg the dog.

From Qala Point in Gozo to parts of Malta’s west coast, these untouched spots are full of marine life, crabs, fish, and coral, but sadly also a magnet for plastic debris, discarded ropes, fishing lines, and other trash washed ashore by passing ships.

The clean-up effort, part of the Coast is Clear NGO initiative, managed to remove 14 large bags of plastic garbage, plus a massive 22-metre-long plastic pipe tangled along the shore.

While it’s a big win for the environment, the work is tough: most of these areas are inaccessible by land, meaning NGOs like Coast is Clear are often the only ones able to save these hidden gems.