We associate beach litter with large items such as plastic
bottles, plastic bags and sheeting netting, but emphasis has been placed on
other categories of plastic waste such as nurdles (
https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/whats-the-problem.html)
and micro-plastics. However, the other day while walking along
the lovely beach at Brittas Bay in County Wicklow (Ireland) I was pleased to
see that there was no large litter to be seen along its 2 km length. There were a few small plastic strips okay
but the beach looked lovely and clean. I
even checked for nurdles…nothing…wonderful.
All along the beach were little bundles of organic debris, a
mixture of seaweed and other plant
material, which looked lovely and natural. So I thought I would take a photograph and to
my surprise something coloured took my attention inside the small bundle. The upshot of this revelation was that each
one of these lovely little bundles of natural material was held together by
plastic filaments. Usually single blue
strands, some with strands of transparent mono-filament net, others contained more obvious black netting. There were thousands of these little bundles
all along the intertidal zone. I was
totally astonished and unaware of the effect these small plastic fragments were
having and the possible consequences for the marine food chain. It would seem that we have yet another
category of marine plastic pollution.
Nick Gray
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