I was once told that the strip of yellow between the land and the sea is a highway. It’s only purpose is to get you from your house/car to the surf and back again. But that’s not to say that it shouldn’t be kept clean.
I include this advert because it makes a valid point about the state of the oceans… I’m not promoting Smirnoff!
Spring is in the air; time to do a spot of Spring cleaning!
I used to hate it when we had to do litter picking at school, my teenage brain couldn’t understand exactly what it was our PSE teacher wanted us to learn from the exercise. ‘Surely this is someone else’s job?’ Fastforward 10 years and I finally get it.
And so I spent this morning with a number of like-minded individuals cleaning the debris of modern life from the beach at Porthtowan.
Of the rubbish that I picked up I saw two definite variants. On one hand you have the inevitable fishing related rubbish – cut off rope from lobster pots or nets etc, and on the other there is PLASTIC.
Cantankerous Frank ¦ Marc Roberts
In Coastliners the life of the community revolves around the beach and the knowledge that, give it enough time, everything retuns. But it doesn’t always return in the same state in which it left.
Whilst plastic may take an age and a day to biodegrade (if it indeed does), it breaks very easily when subjected to the force of the open sea resulting in a ‘plastic soup.’ On the beach this constitutes a challenge to pick up, but in the sea it is impossible.
An island paradise?
Kamilo Beach is the most polluted in the US. Miles away from any sort of ‘civilisation’ the beach is littered with plastic products which have arrived via the ocean currents. This is an extreme example but if an island paradise can be polluted in this way, what hope is there for those beaches which are connected to towns or villages.
I mostly came accross lollipop sticks and fishing twine. The latter I expected, but unless the good people of Porthtowan have eschewed dental hygiene in preference for sweet treats, the former must have come from the rolling surf at the other end of the beach.
All this reminded me of a story I read when I was younger, an extract of which I have quoted below…
When the King threw another party, and the whole of one village did not turn up, he was a little bit worried. He asked if anyone knew what had happened, and they told him that it was the strangest thing, the whole village had been buried under a huge pile of empty bottles, cans, paper plates, sweetie wrappers, crisp packets, pizza boxes, banana skins, apple cores, cartons, ice cream pots, plastic cups, plates, cutlery, napkins, decorations, and left over food.
King Wastealot and the Mountain of Rubbish, Bright New Scotland
As far as I can see it marine pollution and really the problems litter in general stem from our general disrespect for the world around us. Too often are things thrown out rather than being fixed – so often it is the cheaper option.
As a result it will be the natural environments which surround us who will suffer the most because unlike in the advert above, the sea cannot fight back.
Listen to my radio feature on the Porthtowan beach clean. Produced for The Tremough Show.
Yes I know it is a phono (I angered the tech gods and my M-Audio did not work 
)
