Last update:

9th June 2008

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Pressures on the marine environment

Beach litter 2006 survey

Beach litter in the South West 2005

National beach litter results 2005

Marine strandings

Key issue - climate change

Key issue - plastic

Key issue - noise

Key issue - bycatch

UN calls for better protection of marine species

Climate change

Biodiversity

Useful websites

Adopt-a Beach

Seaquest sightings

Institute of Zoology and Natural History Museum national strandings website

Whale and dolphin Conservation Society

Marine Conservation Society

Marine Climate Change Impacts

CoastWeb

Pressures on the marine environment

What's new on this page...

• 34 Blue Flag Awards given to South West beaches - highest in England
• Beachwatch 2007 - results of the beach litter survey on South West beaches
• Concern over recent dolphin strandings in Cornwall 2008
• South West marine strandings 2007
• Cornwall marine strandings 2006
• Cetacean bycatch analysis in Cornwall 2006

What are the pressures on the marine environment?

The pressures on the marine environment are detailed on the Marine Conservation Society's website. These include:

• sewage
• plastic wastes
• balloons
• nutrients and algal blooms
• radioactivity
• chemicals
• oil
• climate change
• litter

Beach litter

Beachwatch is a nation-wide beach litter clean-up and survey, organised by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). Beachwatch was launched in 1993 to raise awareness about marine and coastal litter, monitor levels and sources of litter on Britain's beaches and encourage action to reduce litter pollution at source. It is the flagship event of the MCS Adopt-a-Beach project (est. in 1999) which encourages individuals, groups and communities to carry out regular seasonal beach litter surveys and tackle litter at the local level.

The results of Beachwatch 2007 are now available.

On the 15th and 16th September 2007, the fifteenth annual MCS Beachwatch litter survey and beach clean up took place on beaches around the UK. A total of 354 beaches, covering 168.5 km of coastline in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands were cleaned and surveyed by 3,911 volunteers. In total, over 8,375 volunteer hours were spent removing and recording 346,054 items of litter.

MCS Beachwatch 2007 recorded an average of 2,054 litter items for every kilometre of beach surveyed. This is a 3.27% increase in density compared with MCS Beachwatch 2006 (1,989/km). Whilst this is a relatively small increase, there has been an overall increase of 96.5% in the density of beach litter on surveyed UK beaches since Beachwatch 1994 (1,045 items/km).

South West results

A total of 59 beaches in the South West were surveyed during Beachwatch 2007, covering a total length of 22.3 km and involving 757 volunteers.

A summary of South West beaches that particicipated in Beachwatch 2007, including number of volunteers and length of beach surveyed, is available here.

A total of 346,054 items of litter were found on beaches in the UK during the 2007 survey, 35% of which (116,886 items) were found in the South East and 21% (71,884 items) in the South West. However, as in previous years, the South West had the highest density of litter found on its beaches, with 3,230 items found per km. This was the highest density recorded for any region in the UK and was almost 60% higher than the English average (2,022 items/km) and 57% higher than the UK average (2,054 items/km).

Between 2004 and 2006 the number of litter items found per km on South West beaches declined by over 25% from 4,277 to 3,186 items. However, there was a slight increase in litter density found between 2006 and 2006, of just over 1%. This increase was experienced nationally, with the average litter density in England increasing by 2% and the UK average by 3%.

Regional variations in beach litter density recorded in Beachwatch 2004 - 2007

click to enlarge

Source: Marine Conservation Society (2008)

Source of marine litter collected in the South West - items per km 2005, 2006 and 2007

Source: Source: Marine Conservation Society (2008)

Sources of litter recorded during Beachwatch 2007

Comparison s ources of litter recorded during Beachwatch 2006

Clean Cornwall

In Cornwall, beach litter surveys took place over a 9 day period between the 15th and 23rd of September 2007. Clean Cornwall Week marked a period when a number of community groups and organisations from across Cornwall collected litter on our beaches, in the countryside, and in our towns and villages - with a target of promoting 100 events across the county.

Clean Cornwall is a new partnership set up to reduce litter in Cornwall by:

• raising awareness of the problems caused by litter
• campaigning to change behaviour
• improving the way local councils and others manage litter
• supporting community efforts to reduce and collect litter

National perspective

On the 16th and 17th September 2006, the fourteenth annual Beachwatch litter survey and beach clean-up took place on beaches around the UK, to coincide with the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup covering over 70 countries worldwide.

A total of 358 beaches, covering 187.6 km of coastline in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands were cleaned and surveyed by 4,223 volunteers. In total, over 7,736 volunteer hours were spent removing and recording 373,048 items of litter with a wet weight of 19,362 kg.

Beachwatch 2006 recorded an average of 1,988.7 litter items for every kilometre of beach surveyed. This is a 0.4% increase compared with Beachwatch 2005 (1,981/km). Whilst this is a relatively small increase, there has been an overall increase of 90.3% in the density of beach litter on surveyed UK beaches since Beachwatch 1994 (1,045 items/km).

The 20 most common items found during Beachwatch 2006 comprised 79.3% of the total items recorded. The top 10 items alone accounted for 60.2% of the total litter count, slightly higher than in 2005 (59.7%).

Top 10 items of litter found in the UK 2006

Source: Marine Conservation Society, 2007

Key issue: Climate change and the marine environment

The biodiversity and productivity of seas around the UK could already be suffering the consequences of climate change, according to the Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership's 2nd Annual Report Card 2007 - 2008

The Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership (including government departments, academics and NGOs) hope that the report will give more people better access to the research, and help them understand the issues surrounding the topic.

The 2007 - 2008 Annual Report Card builds upon the evidence base presented in 2006, highlighting key developments and exploring new subject areas (coastal erosion, coastal habitats and air–sea exchanges of heat and water). It brings together scientific understanding from a wider range of research institutes, providing an even more comprehensive assessment of UK marine climate change impacts and highlighting regional variations where possible.

As the evidence base continues to build, it is clear that marine climate change is having important impacts on the marine environment and the goods and services it provides. The information presented this year demonstrates the important knock-on effects that climate change can have through the food chain. For example, at the bottom, warming has led to plankton shifts, which have had an impact upon predators such as fish, which then affects seabirds.

Find out more about the impacts of climate change on the marine environment here.

Climate change and marine predators: some warning signals

The impact of climate change on marine predators has been highlighted by the Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society at the UN Convention for Migratory Species, in Nairobi (23rd - 25th November 2005).

The WDCS has presented a report on the impact of climate change on whales, dolphins and porpoises at a special workshop in migratory species and climate change. This report draws attention to the fact that predicting the consequences of climate change on highly mobile marine predators is extremely difficult and are only just being explored.

The vulnerability of certain species was highlighted, including:

• The highly endangered North Atlantic right whales and the cetaceans with limited habitat such as the river dolphins and the vaquita (found exclusively in the Gulf of Mexico), which will not be able to move away as local conditions change. Little is also known about the situation of many species out on the high seas and that this made initiating conservation plans for them especially difficult.
• Species that have a relationship to sea ice are especially vulnerable – including seal species that haul-out to rest and breed on ice, polar bears that hunt these seals on the ice, and arctic whale species (belugas, narwhals and bowhead whales) for which the ice forms an important part of their habitat. Changes in Antarctica are especially important because of the high biodiversity there, for example 90% of the world’s great whales feed in Antarctic waters.

Mark Simmonds from the WDCS comments: ‘Whilst we may not know precisely how climate change may impact a vulnerable species, it makes it all the more important that other threats are addressed. In most cases climate change will only make things worse and the North Atlantic Right whale provides an important example of this. Since commercial takes on this species ended, the North Atlantic population has been struggling to survive. Ship strikes and entanglement in nets are the primary causes but loss of prey caused by climate change has now been linked to reduced reproductive success in the population and this is likely to push it more swiftly towards extinction.

Generally speaking, larger populations of animals will be better able to endure climate change, making it all the more imperative that other negative impacts, including commercial takes are ended and species are encouraged to return to historical levels.’

Key issue - plastic

According to research carried out by Plymouth University, tiny pieces of plastic and man-made fibres are contaminating the world's oceans and beaches. The impacts of these fibres, broken down from discarded waste, is even being felt in the remote and apparently pristine layers of sand and mud. This is the first assessment of plastic fragments accumulating in sediments and in the water column itself.

A team led by scientists at the University of Plymouth took samples from 17 beaches and estuaries around the UK, and analysed particles which did not appear to be natural. The researchers found that most samples included evidence of a range of plastics or polymers including nylon, polyester and acrylic. They also found that when creatures such as lugworms and barnacles fed on the sediments, the plastics turned up inside their bodies within a few days.

To test whether this contamination was getting worse, the scientists analysed plankton samples taken from survey ships between Scotland and Iceland since the 1960s - and found that the plastic content had increased significantly over time. Because the team only sampled particles which looked different from natural sediments, it's believed that the true level of plastic contamination could be much higher.

Key issue - noise

Oceans of noise (May 2003) is a report from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) that looks at the the impacts of noise pollution on whales and dolphins.

Our seas and oceans are becoming more and more noisy, as a result of increased vessel traffic, seismic surveys for oil and gas exploration and the use of military sonars. The WDCS believes that evidence suggests that this is threatening and in some cases directly harming and killing whales and dolphins.

Dolphins and whales use sound to communicate with one another, to maintain their social group, to understand their environment, to navigate, to hunt and stun prey. The effects of loud, man-made noise under water can range from masking the noises made by the animals themselves so they are no longer able to communicate with one another, through to frightening or chasing animals away from important habitat and, in the worst cases, loud noise can even kill.

Studies have shown that loud noise can cause whales and dolphins to stop feeding and socializing and to change their diving patterns. Over time these effects could have serious consequences for the survival of whole populations. Individual animals have also been directly harmed by loud noise, including damage to hearing. In just the last couple of years, scientists have discovered a condition in whales similar to the bends, suffered by human divers who surface too quickly. This condition is hypothesised to be caused by exposure to loud noises.

Key issue - bycatch

Every year, hundreds of dolphins are wash up dead on UK and French beaches. This is just a fraction of the thousands believed to be killed out at sea in fisheries operating off the UK and French coasts, raising concerns from many environmental organisations that dolphins may be wiped out from these waters.

Full details of strandings in the South West is available on the marine species & habitats page.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee published its report 'Caught in the net: by-catch of dolphins and porpoises off the UK coast' (January 2004).

Key issues raised include:

• The number of dolphins drowned or injured in nets is dramatically increasing. A record number of 500 animals were stranded on our shores in 2003 with post-mortem examinations revealing that the majority had been injured or drowned in nets.
• In Cornwall the number and distribution of bottlenose dolphins indicates a serious decline of almost two thirds over the last 10 years.
• With an estimated population of only 350 bottlenose dolphins resident in UK waters, the worst estimates of their extinction from our shores is 10 years.

Key outcomes of this report include:

• The call for immediate action to fundamentally change the way UK waters are managed.
• A raft of new marine laws and the establishment of a single government ministry with overall responsibility for ensuring that marine resources are managed sustainably.
• Pelagic trawl fishery for Sea Bass, known to cause high dolphin catches, should be closed unless these deaths can be reduced to an acceptable level within two fishing seasons.
• Special Areas of Conservation are to be identified for the harbour porpoise, as a matter of priority.

This report was published just a week after the WDCS' own report on cetacean by-catch 'The Net Effect?', produced for Greenpeace as well as the joint WDCS and Greenpeace awareness raising campaign

More information about marine strandings and the problems of by catch in the South West are available in the marine species and habitats pages.

UN calls for more protection of the world's dolphins & porpoises

The Eight meeting of the United National Convention on Migratory Species in Nairobi (23rd - 25th November 2005) has called for more protection for the world's dolphins and porpoises.

More than two-thirds of World’s Dolphins, Porpoises and Related Species at Risk from being Culled or Caught in Nets. Further risks are also posed by pollution, habitat degradation and military sonar.

According to a new survey presented to the Convention:

• Over 70% of small cetaceans (animals which include dolphins and porpoises) are threatened by entanglement in fishing nets.
• The second biggest threat is “directed” catches where the animals, which also include so called false killer whales, pilot whales and the narwhal are killed for food or uses such as crab and shark bait. An estimated 66% of the 71 species surveyed are at risk from such activities.
• Just over 56% are threatened by pollution including contamination by heavy metals, pesticides and from ingesting marine litter.
• A further 24% are at risk from dam building, siltation, strikes from ferries and other factors linked with habitat degradation.
• Almost 15% are threatened by lack of food as a result of over fishing of the world’s ocean and nearly 13% from culling by fishermen who fear they are a threat to fish stocks.
• Noise pollution linked with underwater sonar and military manoeuvres are putting at risk over 4% of species.

The report argues that eight small cetacean species including the Ganges river dolphin; the Atlantic spotted dolphin and Northern right whale dolphin, should be given new protection under the CMS agreement.

Conservation of stocks of seven other species, currently covered under the Convention, should also be extended to other areas the report suggests. These include the white beaked dolphin in Canadian and United States waters and populations of Risso’s dolphin waters in waters off several coasts including south east South Africa.

Marine Environmental Monitoring & Assessment National Database (MERMAN)

A new database that collects evidence of contaminants, biology and biological effects from around the UK coastline has been developed by Defra and IT partner IBM.

The launch of the Marine Environment Monitoring and Assessment National (MERMAN) database demonstrated for the first time that all of this data can be held in the same place.

Data is collected from more than 80 sites around the UK by a number of different agencies, including the Environment Agency, CEFAS, Fisheries Research Service, SEPA and the Northern Irish agencies- a coordinated programme that has replaced the National Marine Monitoring Programme (NMMP).

For the agencies that collect and analyses this information on behalf of Defra and the devolved administrations, the data management process has been vastly simplified. Data can now be fed straight into one new online system, replacing what was a heavily intensive process.

It is also a more simple and cost effective way for the UK to send its data to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and meet its international commitments.

MERMAN allows users to submit data in a spreadsheet format which validates the information before allowing it to be extracted via an ICES report or in other formats. Members of the public will also be able to access the data via Defra's secure portal.