Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Beaches

As I was driving in this morning Radio 4 (as I get older I find 5 live just too tabloid, Simon Mayo is excellent in the afternoons though) had a piece on the Marine Conservation Society's (MCS) Beachwatch

The changes since 1994 make depressing reading:
  • the average litter density on uk beaches has increased by 110%
  • average figures for the uk are now at 2195 litter items/km of beaches surveyed compared to 1045items/km in 1994
  • the density of plastic found on uk beaches is at its highest level EVER !
  • average litter density on uk beaches have increased year on year
  • the four main sources of beach litter are from the public, fishing, shipping and sewage
Radio 4 went out with a cornish fisherman and in one cast alone he got as many plastic bags as fish and he has (I think it was him and not general) pulled up a TV and a fridge!!

The question is am I surprised, how often do you see people throw sweet packs and cigarette's from moving cars?

Marine litter such as fishing nets and plastic litter can cause entanglement for marine wildlife. According to the MCS entanglement in marine litter has been observed in 144 species.

I don't about you but I do despair about my fellow man. It is rather easy to dispose of litter cleanly and if nothing else take it home and stick it in the bin!

Beaches are wonderful places for children to play but not with some of the stuff that we dump on them. Years ago you could run bare foot now there could be glass or worse! The MCS also has a good beach guide.

2 comments:

Tricia Ryder said...

Saw this item on the early morning news; really disheartening and sad to see the state of the beaches and what's washed ashore and caught in nets.

Jan said...

There was something on the Welsh news tonight about Welsh beaches being the worst. On 50 beaches they found 50,000 pieces of litter. Bloody disgraceful. The people who chuck their rubbish just where they like are the scum of the earth. Not enough prosecutions is the problem. You see it around this area too, MacDonalds rubbish laying in the road, when the nearest one is like 12 miles away. They've travelled this far eating it in the car, and then chuck it out of the windows. I would like to place it somewhere about their person. Grrrrr.

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