The Guernsey Clay Target Shooting Club accepted there was more to do to clean up the headland but insisted it took its environmental responsibilities seriously.
James Rouget, the club’s secretary and environmental lead, said it had made several changes in recent years to reduce the impact of the sport and that most of the damage remaining was from a previous era. ‘We have been shooting there for 60 years, but during the vast majority of that time there was not the same focus on environmental issues as there is now, and so we have some legacy issues to deal with,’ he said.
Since 2016, the club has been shooting targets which break down naturally, and it has now also switched from plastic to biodegradable fibre wads, which hold the lead shots in place.
The plastic wads were previously falling on the shingle bank behind the range but the club has been clearing them up regularly.
‘The collection of plastic has been a real success and we have virtually eliminated plastic contamination,’ said Mr Rouget.
‘Two or three times a week for the past few years we have been making sure there is nothing there and 99% of the plastic which was there must have been cleared by now.’
The club has taken responsibility for three bays as part of the island’s beach cleaning initiatives.
It has worked closely with the States and Environment Guernsey, but has had an uneasy relationship with the Clean Earth Trust.
The trust has been critical about the large deposits of lead pellets which lie on the rocks behind the range as a hazard to humans and wildlife. States environmental pollution officials are about to launch a new investigation into that problem, following Deputy Marc Laine going public with his concerns and asking for warning signs to be erected.
Mr Rouget believed they may be under-estimating the club’s efforts to deal with lead pellets.
‘Sixty years’ worth of lead has fallen on the beach, but we are now collecting more lead than we are shooting, and as long as we keep doing that we are making inroads into dealing with this,’ he said.
‘We have a battery-powered industrial hoover and we use it a couple of times each month to suck up the lead. Tonnes and tonnes of lead has been cleared but we know there are some pockets of lead remaining.’
Wave analysis has also been carried out to provide a better understanding of where and when the lead is moving and which areas need to be cleaned the most.
The club’s range was built in the 1960s on top of a quarry which Mr Rouget said was filled with waste from the island’s greenhouse industry.
‘Any lead on the beach or in the reading in the water taken from the beach could be coming from that source,’ he said.
‘It could at least be contributing to the amount of lead on the beach.
‘What we are putting out is a fraction of the amount of lead which fishermen lose every year.’
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