Marine Life & Conservation
Students’ litter picking data to help clean up UK seas
The Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean invites schools across the country to clean up the UK’s seas, no matter where they are.
The Marine Conservation Society has developed a suite of new educational resources for this year’s Great British Beach Clean, running from 17th to 26th September. There’s plenty of opportunity for students to get involved in a beach clean or inland litter pick and learn about ocean pollution no matter where they are.
The charity has created a pack of lessons and resources for primary and secondary ages focusing on marine litter. Students can explore the plastics problem from their classroom or take part in their own beach, street, park or playground clean.
Jenny Griffiths, Education Manager at the Marine Conservation Society: “The Great British Beach Clean is a fantastic way to bring the issue of ocean pollution to life. Whether you’re by the beach or miles from it, we’ve created a pack of helpful resources to engage young people with the issue of littering and explore the link to beach and ocean pollution. As well as in class and outdoor learning, our resources will help young people to identify practical ways we can all play a part in reducing marine litter and raise awareness of this important issue.”
For schools by the coast, students can take part in a beach clean and help gather data for the Marine Conservation Society using the charity’s survey form. Inland, the charity’s Source to Sea Litter Quest is a great way to illustrate how far pollution travels to make it to the ocean. The Litter Quest form pulls out some of the most common litter items on UK beaches and asks volunteers inland to see how many they can spot.
By taking part in the Litter Quest students can help to stop pollution at its source and keep the UK’s beaches clean from miles away.
Last year, Marine Conservation Society volunteers found an average of 425 items of litter for every 100 metres of beach cleaned in the UK. Inland, 70% of litter picks taking place on streets and in parks found PPE litter, 99% found drinks containers.
Dr Laura Foster, Head of Clean Seas at the Marine Conservation Society: “All of the data our volunteers collect on beaches, streets and parks across the country helps to make a real difference. Data collected in previous years has helped us make the case for the 5p carrier bag charges across the UK. We’re now pushing for Deposit Return Schemes for all sizes and types of drinks containers. We hope that a deposit on these will mean that in the future, we won’t be seeing cans and bottles littered and data such as this helps us show just how significant this change can be.”
The data also helps the charity to see the impact of things like the 5p carrier bag charges. Since their introduction from 2011 in Wales the charity has seen a 55% drop in the amount of single-use plastic bags found across UK beaches. The more data volunteers collect, the more policies the charity can push for to make beach and ocean pollution a thing of the past.
Teachers can find all the resources for the Great British Beach Clean, and Litter Quest, on the Marine Conservation Society’s website. Resources are available for primary and secondary ages and are suitable for schools and groups.
Images by Alisdair Naulls
The Ocean Cleanup, the global non-profit project, has removed a verified all-time total of ten million kilograms (22 million lbs.) of trash from oceans and rivers around the world – approximately the same weight as the Eiffel Tower.
To complete its mission of ridding the oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup uses a dual strategy: cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) to remove the plastic already afloat in the oceans, while stopping the flow of plastic from the world’s most polluting rivers.
Through cleaning operations in the GPGP and in rivers in eight countries, the cumulative total of trash removed has now surpassed ten million kilograms. This milestone demonstrates the acceleration of The Ocean Cleanup’s impact, while underlining the astonishing scale of the plastic pollution problem and the need for continued support and action.
While encouraging for the mission, this milestone is only a staging point: millions more tons of plastic still pollute our oceans and The Ocean Cleanup intends to continue learning, improving and innovating to solve this global catastrophe.
This announcement comes as governments from around the world meet to continue negotiations to develop a new legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution at INC4 in Ottawa, Canada. Representatives of The Ocean Cleanup will be in attendance and the organization will be urging decision-makers to collaborate towards a comprehensive and ambitious global treaty which addresses plastic at all stages of its life cycle and in all marine environments worldwide, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
It is encouraging to see that the need for remediation is reflected in the various options for potential treaty provisions. It is essential that the final treaty contains clear targets for the remediation of legacy plastic pollution, and reduction of riverine plastic emissions.
Tackling plastic pollution requires innovative and impactful solutions. The treaty should therefore incentivize the innovation ecosystem by fostering innovations that make maximal use of data, technology and scientific knowledge – such as those designed and deployed by The Ocean Cleanup.
‘After many tough years of trial and error, it’s amazing to see our work is starting to pay off – and I am proud of the team who has brought us to this point.’ said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. ‘While we still have a long way to go, our recent successes fill us with renewed confidence that the oceans can be cleaned.’
The Ocean Cleanup was founded in 2013 and captured its first plastic in 2019, with the first confirmed catch in the GPGP coming soon after the deployment of Interceptor 001 in Jakarta, Indonesia. After surpassing one million kilograms of trash removed in early 2022, the non-profit project has since progressed to the third iteration of its GPGP cleaning solution, known as System 03, and a network of Interceptors currently covering rivers in eight countries, with more deployments set for 2024.
About The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is an international non-profit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal through a dual strategy: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up the legacy plastic that has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup develops large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced through DNV’s chain of custody model to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 140. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit: theoceancleanup.com and follow @theoceancleanup on social media.
Marine Life & Conservation
Steve Backshall to headline Shark Trust’s flagship event: For the Love of Sharks
Join a host of amazing, shark loving, speakers including Steve Backshall and the Shark Trust team for an evening celebrating shark conservation at the Royal Geographical Society in London this November.
Date: 29th November 2024
Time: 6-10pm
Location: Royal Geographical Society, London
Tickets: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
The event will be a celebration of all things shark. Those lucky enough to get hold of tickets will hear from engaging guest speakers with a passion for sharks.
The line-up includes (*subject to change if unforeseen circumstances arise)
Steve Backshall: One of television’s busiest presenters, BAFTA award-winning wildlife expert Steve has been passionate about the wild world ever since he was young.
Steve’s impressive TV career has taken him all around the world, investigating a wide array of species and environments. Steve has filmed over 100 hours of children’s wildlife programmes with the BAFTA award winning Deadly 60 franchise and recently, with Sky Nature, for his new series ‘Whale with Steve Backshall’. He has been a patron for the Shark Trust for 10 years.
Simon Rogerson: is a photojournalist specialising in natural history, diving and the sea.
He is editor of SCUBA magazine, the official journal of the British Sub-Aqua Club. Simon started his career as a crime reporter but gravitated towards his ‘less depressing’ interest in underwater exploration, joining the staff of DIVE magazine in 1999. In 2005 he was named ‘Editor of the Year’ in the PPA’s Independent Publishing Awards. Simon also works as a freelance writer, contributing frequently to the Sunday Times and Telegraph, in addition to BBC Wildlife, Esquire, and a host of international diving magazines. He is the author of a book, Dive Red Sea, published by Ultimate Sports. Now based in Berkshire, Simon has been a Patron of the Shark Trust for 20 years.
More speakers to be announced soon. Head to the Shark Trust website to learn more.
The evening will also allow guests the final chance to see the Oceanic 31, shark art exhibition. Some of the artwork will be auctioned/raffled at the event, while the rest will be auctioned online to raise money for the Shark Trust Oceanic Programme.
For the Love of Sharks is an evening with something for everyone who is interested and fascinated by sharks. Join the Shark Trust, their Patrons, Trustees and Staff, along with a host of supporters for this celebration of shark conservation.
For more information or to buy a ticket: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
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