Sea Shepherd Queenstown area co-ordinator Rob Dickinson said every six weeks for the past two years he had been running a very successful beach clean-up event in Queenstown and as he was moving to Wanaka he thought he could do the same there.
"You’ve got a beach lakefront here. Tourists come here and where there are tourists and people then you are going to have rubbish," he said.
The beach clean-up days were also a way to raise awareness of ocean conservation, and make people aware that if a piece of rubbish, no matter how small, got in the lake, it eventually made its way into the river and out to sea, Mr Dickinson said.
About 20 volunteers picked up rubbish, including Kyla Taylor and her daughter Jaime (6), from the Wanaka Yacht Club around to Stoney Creek Jaime said it "felt good" helping prevent sea animals from getting sick.
Mr Dickinson said there were plans to expand the event to include cleaning up the banks of the Clutha River.
