The Southern Fiordland coastal clean-up has been cancelled this year due to concerns around COVID-19.

Sixteen volunteers were set to clean up the beaches from Lake Hauroko down along Wairaurahiri River over five days beginning yesterday (August 13). 

The clean-up also coincided with Conservation Week which starts this Saturday. 

The team of enthusiastic volunteers organised by the Southern Coastal Charitable Trust would have collected tonnes of rubbish, which washes up through the Foveaux Strait from the Pacific Ocean daily. 

Fiordland Coastal clean-up organiser Johan Groters said it was a real shame that the clean-up had to be cancelled at the last minute.

But following the government's announcements on Tuesday that Auckland would go into Alert Level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country would go into Alert Level 2, the team made the tough decision to pull the pin on the trip.

Around six of the volunteers were also coming from the North Island. 

Fellow organiser and trustee of the Southern Coastal Charitable Trust Joyce Kolk said they just didn't have any facilities for isolation.

 “We can't [physically] distance the volunteers,” she said.

A skip full of the rubbish collected on a previous Southern Fiordland Coastal Clean-up.

Mr Groters said the saddest part was that the big parts of plastic in the water turned into smaller bits over time and these pieces were most harmful birds, fish and marine mammals as they were easily swallowed. 

Over the last five Fiordland clean-ups organised by the Southern Coastal Charitable Trust, Mrs Kolk said they had picked up more than 56 tonnes of rubbish. 

An assortment of litter is usually found by volunteers, from lost fishing gear to margarine lids, milk bottles, soft drink bottles, plastic bags, toothbrushes, tyres and boots.

Mr Groters said a lot of plastic washes up and some has come as far as Australia.

"There's plastic for Africa," he said. 

Usually, the clean-ups run for around a week with about 30 volunteers helping each time. 

Mrs Kolk said her team had specially made this years' clean up shorter and smaller in an attempt to get it done before any further pandemic restrictions were put in place again. 

However, their plans were thwarted by the virus again. 

This year's trip cost upwards of $80,000 and takes weeks to properly organise.

Each volunteer who participates in the clean-up pays $1000, which goes towards paying the helicopter companies which fly the volunteers in and out of the remote area, food and accommodation. 

The operation receives no government funding and instead relies on the support from local business sponsorships and donations.

Mrs Kolk said the key funder of the clean-ups was the fishing industry, which supplies the bulk of the financial support for the project.

View a clip from the 2019 Milford Sound Coastal clean-up organised by the Southern Coastal Charitable Trust, where 14 tonnes of rubbish was removed from the coast.