Out of Sight, Out of Mind

At first glance Scapa can sometimes look quite clean, but closer inspection shows the litter has been covered over with wind blown sand, Investigate a little deeper and the litter is trapped beneath stones which have been moved by winter storms.

 

In one 20m stretch the predominant type of litter was short lengths of rope, polypropylene strapping and small sheets of blue plastic.

click to enlarge.

The strapping is extremely strong and is often found in an intact loop without having been cut, but the plastic sheet breaks up easily and is difficult to pick up.

These two types of litter combined make a  risk of entanglement and ingestion.

 

It didn't take long to fill a bucket...

 

and spot the first puffin of the year.

Nurdles at Newark

The sun shone this weekend on a visit to Newark in Deerness. The warmth had caused a swarm of flies to appear. These in turn had encouraged flocks of startlings to converge into a murmur as they pursued the flies along the beach. Small groups of turnstones joined in. Briefly, it felt like Spring!

A closer look at the strand line where the turnstones were feeding revealed a disturbing amount of plastic confetti and nurdles. In the first area I looked, a patch of sand about the size of my own hand was covered with fragments of plastic and nurdles - the pre-production pellets that look exactly like fish eggs. If I could find so much so quickly and in such a small area then there must be uncountable numbers.
What exactly were the birds eating....?

Plastic confetti + nurdles + sea water = plastic soup

Not very far away there were some balloons which had obviously travelled a fair distance. I think the nearest Pizza Hut is in Inverness over a hundred miles away - of course they needn't necessarily have come from the nearest Pizza Hut.

potential turtle food?

Latex balloons are particularly favoured by turtles. Though the latex is biodegradeable it takes so long for it to decompose that it can do a great deal of damage through ingestion, and the ribbon is an entanglement hazard.

 



The fine weather encouraged a lot of folk on to the beaches this weekend and it was brilliant to see other people picking up plenty of pieces!

PU3P at Dingieshowe and Skaill

Thanks to the RSPB and Orkney Islands Council Waste Services we have a couple of new stickers on bins this weekend. At Dingieshowe, which is a beach with a big marine litter problem, there is a small bin with a new sticker. Hopefully it will work as a reminder and regular visitors to the beach might be encouraged to bring their own bags to remove litter and take it away with them as well.

 

The Pick Up Three Pieces message was initiated by children but with the support of the RSPB it is hoped that stewardship for local beaches will be undertaken by the wider community and everyone will participate year round to look after 'their beach'.

 

 

At Skaill in the West Mainland the 1100ltr bin is ready for its share of litter. This iconic beach is visited by plenty of local folk and visitors from around the world. Now there is a designated place for visitors to deposit marine litter and contribute to reducing litter around our coasts and removing some of the hazards for wildlife.

 

 

A two minute clean up around the bin area included a fluorescent light tube, monofilamanet line and the usual handful of lighters, plastic lids, shotgun shell casings and cut off ends of rope and netting.

 

 

Why not put a photo of what you have removed on the Pick Up Three Pieces Facebook page?