Beach cleaning - Isle of May marine rubbish

 Lucy with the results of a few hours rope collecting.

One of the things we have been doing the last day or two is dealing with the residue of the storm earlier on in the week. We moved a tangle of creels that the sea dumped on Tuesday off Pilgrims Haven . This morning we recovered a huge amount of rope from the South Ness and Kirkhaven plus floats from Colm's Hole and over the past few weeks we have been bagging masses of plastic drinks bottles off the beaches for recycling. Some of these items are accidentally released into the sea but some have been irresponsibly disposed.of  and the people who do it don't have an idea what problems they can cause. The plastic breaks down and enters into the marine ecosystem, the ropes tangle seals, whales and dolphins as well as boat propellers and therefore are a safety issue for our visitor boats, and last year a grey seal pup got trapped in a creel washed up on Pilgrims. It is storms like this one that highlight just how much rubbish is floating around in the seas around us.
Have a look at this short film on the Marine Mammal Centre all about the life of a plastic bag in the sea, very cleverly done.

  All this is off the beaches on the Isle of May this season.