Over January and February volunteers from across the islands took part in our marine litter data collection project with the key aim of providing better data on island marine litter.
On forming our Marine Litter Working Group in 2021 it quickly became clear that the volume of marine litter and its key sources in islands are quite distinct from mainland coasts but there was a lack of data to back this up. Working in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society the results of the data collection have been analysed and clearly show the difference with the abundance of marine litter being 4.4 times higher in the islands and 75% coming from fishing and shipping which only accounts for 17% in mainland beach cleans. You can read the report here.
Going forwards, the ongoing SIF Spring data collection will help consolidate the data, together with the follow on quarterly events which are being planned.