MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. The Clean Arctic project's volunteers are tidying up the Shumshu Island's coastline, where the Kuril landing took place in August, 1945. A memorial complex, dedicated to the last battle of World War II, will be created there soon, the project's press service said.

"The volunteers have cleaned 2.5 km of coastline, the area near Cape Kurbatov, beds of three streams, part of the Bolshaya River mouth and the adjacent shore. They have collected 38 cubic meters of waste, brought there by the surf. Those streams get clogged with the brought in plastics," the press service said.

A team of Clean Arctic's 12 volunteers have been working on the Shumshu Island. They have joined a field camp where volunteers from across the country are landscaping the territory for a future memorial complex. The place is inaccessible, which complicates work. It is difficult for freight transport to get there and volunteers have to carry waste bags in hands for a few hundred meters.

"Weather conditions are also complicated. Though it is mid-summer, the temperature on the Shumshu does not rise above plus 12 degrees. The teams have to work in the rain. Precipitation on the island is something special. Strong winds wrap and carry the drops parallel to the ground, forming "horizontal rains," the roads turn into impassable puddles, so we have to use any convenient moment to continue work," the press service quoted Clean Arctic's leader Andrey Nagibin as saying.

The volunteers' most unusual find is a kukhtyl - a Japanese glass fishing net float. They appeared in Japan several centuries ago and, along with the development of fishing, spread to neighboring territories. In Russia, they became popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Japanese fishermen actively fished in the Far Eastern waters.

The Clean Arctic project began in 2021. Over this time, 7,700 people from across the country have collected 19,800 tons of waste, and cleaned 791 hectares of Arctic land.