Marine litter trashing Scotland’s Knoydart Peninsula -Killing 100,000 marine mammals per year.

13/08/2008 12:41:11 August 2008. The Knoydart Peninsula is one of Britain's most remote stretches of coastline. Disturbingly, beach cleaning on the peninsula has revealed the full extent of marine litter in our seas. Over the past month work parties of volunteers for the Friends of Knoydart and the John Muir Trust have removed the equivalent of over 300 large plastic bags of rubbish from 3.5 kilometres of coastline between Sandaig & Doune on the west of Knoydart. This is the first time that this area has been cleared of litter.

Marine litter
"We were absolutely astonished at the sheer scale of rubbish on such a remote spot," commented Sandy Maxwell, Conservation Activities Co-ordinator for the John Muir Trust. "It is a graphic illustration of just how much marine litter is in the sea. Situated on the south west of the Knoydart Peninsula this stretch of coastline must be a prime catchment area for boat traffic in and around the Minch."

46,000 plastic items per square mile of ocean - Kills 100,000 animals and 1 million birds annually
The Marine Conservation Society (MCS) estimates that beach litter has increased by as much as 80% over the past 10 years. Worldwide, there are an average 46,000 pieces of plastic litter in every square mile of ocean. Globally it is estimated that over a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals die every year from entanglement, or ingestion of plastics. Certain types of plastic are also known to absorb toxic chemicals from their environment, resulting in concentrations up to one million times higher than in ocean water.

"It is sickening to think that even the most far flung corners of this island are not free from litter and pollution." added Maxwell. "Leaving the problem to coastal communities to clear up is not the answer - we need to see far stricter management of the seas in the up coming Marine Bill."

Inaccessible coastline
The coast line between Sandaig & Doune is not accessible by road so all of the rubbish has been collated into large piles, to be ferried off by boat in the next few weeks. It is estimated that it will take a least ten boat loads to clear it.

"The Knoydart Foundation Ranger Service is extremely grateful for the hard work and selfless effort put into the beach cleaning by the Friends of Knoydart and John Muir Trust volunteers," commented Ranger Tommy McManmon. "The area of coastline in question is extremely remote and one of the least-visited areas of the peninsula. The clean-up means that a special area will be restored to a condition in which visitors and locals can enjoy a feeling of wildness and solitude."

Assistance needed from local boatowners
"The next stage of removing the rubbish to somewhere it can be collected by the local authority will be logistically difficult, but we have been hugely helped in this area by a generous donation from a Friend of Knoydart. The local authority has also been very helpful with offering use of a local landing craft for this task. We will be looking for assistance to move the rubbish to boats in the near future - keep an eye on our website www.knoydart-foundation.com for further details," added McManmon.

1. The Knoydart Foundation bought the Knoydart Estate in 1999 on behalf of the community. The people who live and work in Knoydart are now in charge of their own and the land's destiny, with a majority of locally elected directors on the Foundation Board. The aim of the Knoydart Foundation is to preserve, enhance and develop Knoydart for the well being of the community and the environment. The vision of the Knoydart Foundation is that ‘Our land will be an area of diverse flourishing habitats with their full potential of native flora and fauna, supporting a thriving community that offers a warm welcome to visitors.'
2. The Friends of Knoydart are a group of committed supporters who help the Knoydart Foundation by: providing income for projects through regular subscriptions, offering practical skills, offering donations in kind, giving a wide base of experience and ideas.
3. The John Muir Trust is the UK's leading wild land conservation charity. The Trust owns and safeguards eight iconic areas of wild land including parts of Ben Nevis, the Red Cuillin in Skye, Schiehallion, Quinag and Sandwood Bay. The Trust works closely with the communities on its own land and with the community bodies that own and manage land in Knoydart, North Harris and Assynt. For more information go to www.jmt.org.
4. The Trust takes its name from John Muir, the Scot who founded the modern conservation movement. Born in 1838 in Dunbar, East Lothian, John Muir emigrated as a child to America. He went on to find fame as a botanist, geologist, mountaineer and pioneer of what is now called ecology. During his explorations of the high Sierra and Alaska, Muir became aware of the threats to wild places and successfully campaigned for the establishment of National Parks to safeguard vast tracts of wild lands such as Yosemite Valley in California.