Causecast

By SHANNON FLAHERTY, Contributing Writer

According to a leading marine conservation organization, litter on beaches across Britain has more than doubled in the last 15 years, endangering the health of marine wildlife and humans.
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) reports that their annual beach-watch survey found an average of 2,195 items of litter per kilometer of beach in 2008. This number represents a 110 percent increase from the amount of litter found on the same beaches almost 15 years ago in 1994.

The UK charity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its wildlife, MCS organized over 5,000 volunteers to clean and survey 374 beaches for its survey, uncovering 385,659 items of litter in the process.
Food packaging and cigarette butts make up more than a third of all litter, with discarded fishing paraphernalia accounting for 13 percent.

Not only are marine animals and seabirds affected by the pollution, but so are humans. Filter-feeding animals that ingest toxic plastic particles ultimately introduce pollutants into the human food chain. Therefore, clean beaches are more than just a matter of aesthetics, it’s a human health issue, as well.

Causecast organization Waterkeeper Alliance is a group that leads the way in helping preserve and protect waterways around the world. Today, with water resources declining in quantity and quality in virtually every part of the world, Waterkeeper Alliance’s work is more critical than ever.

Causecast leaders Matthew Modine and Gloria Reuben support Waterkeeper Alliance as one of the world’s fastest growing environmental movements—with more than 180 Waterkeeper programs on six continents.

The world’s oceans and waterways need more public advocates. According to Britain’s environmental minister Huw Irranca-Davies, cleaning up beaches is a public issue.

“Litter goes in our bins, not on our beaches—and ultimately this is an issue of personal responsibility,” explains Davies.

So, as summer approaches and we all head to the beach, let’s do our part to put an end to beach litter. MCS says it wants to halve the litter on Britain’s beaches by 2015. What’s our goal?

For more information on finding a local beach clean-up in your town, visit Surfrider Foundation and Ocean Conservancy. Together, we can start a sea change.

Photo by Blind Grasshopper, flickr