Marine Life & Conservation
A Christmas facial – a treat for your skin but a disaster for our seas, say the MCS
Lots of people will treat themselves to some extra beauty therapies over the festive period, or give facial products as a pampering gift – but although these items may make our skin look and feel good, they’re giving our seas anything but a make-over.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) are warning shoppers that many personal care products like scrubs and peels now contain plastic particles, and these can have a devastating effect on the marine environment.
Every time we exfoliate or peel off dead cells with many of the leading scrubs and washes, and then rinse them off, the tiny bits of plastic go down the drain and that means we are flushing plastic into our seas where it contributes to a growing problem of plastic pollution.
Dr Sue Kinsey, MCS Litter Policy Officer, says: “It’s incredible how many everyday products contain microplastic beads. These find their way through our sewers and into our seas where they are easily eaten by all sorts of marine animals and could ultimately end up back in the human food chain. These bits of plastic are so small that our sewage works cannot deal with them, so when used they are essentially washed straight to river and sea”.
Although a number of leading manufacturers of beauty products have already stopped or have promised to phase out the use of microbeads in peels, scrubs and washes, (including Unilever, Lush and the Body Shop), many firms are still using them.
MCS and FFI say shoppers can play an important role in helping to put pressure on manufacturers who are dragging their feet over the issue of microbeads in their products. Consumers can check out those products already free of beads by using the Good Scrub Guide, which can be found here.
Tanya Cox, FFI’s Marine Plastics Officer, says: “Microplastic pollution is having a profound impact on the health of our oceans and demands urgent attention. FFI is really encouraged to see leading UK retailers and producers of personal care products proactively replacing damaging microplastic exfoliants with biodegradable alternatives and urge all companies to take such positive action to minimise this source of microplastic pollution”.
MCS and FFI will be working together closely in the New Year to champion positive action on behalf of forward thinking, UK companies who actively remove microplastics from their product lines. Together, MCS and FFI will use the Good Scrub Guide and supporting smartphone App – the Beat the Micro Bead App – to illustrate the number of plastic-free face scrubs available on the UK market to help keep Britain’s consumers informed at each step of the way.
MCS and FFI encourage consumers to help populate the Good Scrub Guide and the App by by letting them know which of your favourite products do and don’t contain plastic. Those with plastics will have some of these ingredients listed:
Polyethylene / Polythene (PE)
Polypropylene (PP)
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)
Nylon
When you’ve spotted these in the ingredients list, all you have to do is fill in a simple form which can be found here and MCS will do the rest.
Into the Great Wide Ocean: Life in the Least Known Habitat on Earth by Sonke Johnsen
What an unexpected surprise! A book that combines a clear passion for the ocean with humour and the deft touch of a true storyteller. Johnsen gives a wonderful insight into the life of a deep sea marine biologist , the weird and wonderful animals encountered in this mysterious world, the trials and tribulations, in a way that makes you feel you have been sat at a table chatting about his work over a pint or cup of tea.
Even for divers, the deep blue open ocean can feel inaccessible. It is one of the least studied places in the universe. In this book that deep blue ocean and its inhabitants is brought to you with warmth and wit. And even the most well-read will come away with new facts and information. Johnsen’s goal is one that resonates throughout: Before we as scientists can ask people to preserve this important and fragile habitat, we need to show them that it’s there and the beauty of what lives in it. He does just that.
This is a book that combines the scientific with a deeply personal story. You feel what it is like to work out in the open ocean and get to know the animals that reside there. With descriptions that allow you to really imagine what it feels like being out there in the blue.
What the publisher says:
The open ocean, far from the shore and miles above the seafloor, is a vast and formidable habitat that is home to the most abundant life on our planet, from giant squid and jellyfish to anglerfish with bioluminescent lures that draw prey into their toothy mouths. Into the Great Wide Ocean takes readers inside the peculiar world of the seagoing scientists who are providing tantalizing new insights into how the animals of the open ocean solve the problems of their existence.
Sönke Johnsen vividly describes how life in the water column of the open sea contends with a host of environmental challenges, such as gravity, movement, the absence of light, pressure that could crush a truck, catching food while not becoming food, finding a mate, raising young, and forming communities. He interweaves stories about the joys and hardships of the scientists who explore this beautiful and mysterious realm, which is under threat from human activity and rapidly changing before our eyes.
Into the Great Wide Ocean presents the sea and its inhabitants as you have never seen them before and reminds us that the rules of survival in the open ocean, though they may seem strange to us, are the primary rules of life on Earth.
About the Author:
Sönke Johnsen is professor of biology at Duke University. He is the author of The Optics of Life: A Biologist’s Guide to Light in Nature and the coauthor of Visual Ecology (both Princeton). Marlin Peterson, who created original illustrations for this book, is an illustrator and muralist who teaches and illustrates in many styles and media. He also specializes in giant optical illusions such as his harvestmen mural below the Space Needle in Seattle, and his full portfolio can be found at marlinpeterson.com.
Book Details
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Hardcover
Price: £20.00
ISBN: 9780691181745
Published: 7th January, 2025
This week only – your donation to the Shark Trust will be doubled – at no extra cost to you!
This week only – your donation to the Shark Trust will be doubled – at no extra cost to you!The Shark Trust are raising vital funds for their Community Engagement Programme: empowering people to learn about sharks and rays, assisting the scientific community take action for elasmobranchs, and bring communities together to become ambassadors for change.
Every £1 you give = £2 for shark conservation. A donation of £10 becomes £20, £50 becomes £100! Help us reach our target of £10,000, if successful, this will be doubled to £20,000 by the Big Give.
Every donation makes DOUBLE the impact!
Monty Halls is backing this week of fundraising “Cousteau called sharks the “splendid savage of the sea”, and even through the more benign lens of modern shark interactions it remains a good description. The reefs I dived thirty years ago teemed with sharks, the perfect result of 450 million years of evolution. Today those same reefs are silent, the blue water empty of those elegant shadows. But hope remains that if one generation has created such devastation, so the next can reverse the damage that has been done. The Shark Trust are at the forefront of that fight.“
To find out more about the work of the Shark Trust visit their website here.
Blogs2 months agoGO Diving Show 2025: The Monster Mark Evans Created (And Why the Industry Loves It)
- Marine Life & Conservation2 months ago
ARC marine Celebrates “Commended” Award at Underwater Photographer of the Year with reef cube image
- News2 months ago
Humpback Mother and Calf Win Underwater Photographer of the Year 2025
- News2 months ago
Go Diving Show 2025 Exhibitor Showcase
- News3 months ago
Book Review: Amazing Diving Stories by John Bantin
- News3 months ago
Filming 360 in The Bahamas
- Gear News2 months ago
Poseidon Diving Systems Announces New UK Distribution Model
- Gear Reviews2 months ago
Gear Review: Insta360 Ace Pro2 (Watch Video)
