Spurn Point: The Battle of the Plastics!

Since 1994 'beach litter is at its highest since records began' and the amount of plastic
found on beaches has risen by 140% according to the Marine Conservation Society

My fellow Practical Conservationists and I travelled to Spurn Point. We volunteered our morning to collect waste on the beach, and the afternoon doing a spot of bird watching.

Spurn Point is owned by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust (YWT) as its most iconic nature reserve, it has a variety of habitats, including a beach, mudflats, saltmarshs and many more. 

It's a famous location for bird migration but also known for a wide range of other crucial migrating wildlife such as dragonflies, butterflies and ladybirds. Due to the reserve's location, a large amount of plastic waste accumulates after being brought in by the tide, which poses a threat to all of them.

Spurn beach; a rough sea to match the miserable weather, but its okay #Pracconshull is
still hard at work hunting plastic down the beach. Everyone is dressed smartly,
suitable walking shoes, waterproofs and gloves!

How did we help?

The YWT at Spurn conduct a beach clean once a week as part of their Waves of Waste initiative, by doing this they protect the wildlife from the plastic debris found on the beach. When we arrived at the beach there seemed to be no plastic in sight, but upon closer inspection bits of rubbish could be seen. We grabbed a litter picker and a plastic bin bag (I'm sorry!) and went off hunting for plastic.

Beach cleans are effective as it minimizes the risk of birds getting trapped or ingesting plastics, it will reduce micro-plastics within the food chain and of course keep our coasts clean. 

After just 1 hour of beach cleaning over 10 bin bags were full of fishing wire and rope,
agricultural rope,plastic bottles with tops and metal cans! the equipment used for this
was a simple litter picker, a bin bag and a pair of gloves for warmth and safety. 

Why should we care?

Spurn is an internationally important nature reserve with sensitive, diverse and wildlife-rich habitats. It is a recognized as a Heritage Coast, National Nature Reserve, SSSI, and lastly a Special Area of Conservation. This is due to Spurn's unique ecology and geology. 

Many birds occupy Spurn at some point during the migratory months. Migrants are funnelled down towards Spurn Point, sometimes more than 15,000 birds can fly past in Autumn with usual numbers being 3,000! 

Mud flats are a crucial feeding ground for wading birds, if these are covered in plastic, they will eat it, either directly or indirectly via micro-plastics. If we lose this habitat then these migratory birds wouldn't have anywhere to stopover at, as there aren't many places like this within the UK, it would affect multiple ecosystems. 

These habitats are side by side on the walk down to Spurn Point, here we have a beach
a grassland and a salt march, by cleaning the beach it prevents the plastics from bleeding
into the other habitats when the tide is high.

Micro-plastics
Plastics break down into micro-plastics, which enter the food chain via fish. Because of this even we end up eating micro-plastics! 

I looked under a microscope at some of the plastic I collected to see first-hand micro-plastics in action, as I was looking at them you could see them breaking away into tiny particles.
 

In 2017 Auta stated that the presence of micro-plastics within the marine environment pose a great threat to the entire ecosystem, as it effects feeding and breeding in many species, especially birds. Law backed this stating that in 2014 more than 300 million metric tonnes of plastic is produced per year, which has been detected worldwide in all major marine habitats. 

Some science with a view, just outside the window was the beautiful marshland behind
the Discovery centre. Looking through the microscopes at a section of rope collected
I could see the plastic break down into micro-plastic.

How to get involved?

Video by National Geographic 2016 ©

At home you can make changes within your everyday life to reduce plastic consumption by applying the reduce, reuse, recycle initiative to the plastics within your home, or switch to reusable alternatives. 

To get involved with YWT you can take a trip down to Spurn Point (Dress warm, as you will be exposed to the chilly north sea wind, appropriate footwear is a must as there is plenty of walking!) and check their events page for when they have an organised beach clean, Or you can organised your own with Surfers Against Sewage.

If you're not able to take part in a beach clean you can always become a member of YWT for £2.75 a month or donate! This will help them fund more projects to save our coasts. 

With your help we can stop these micro-plastics entering the food chain, and we can save the ocean one beach clean at a time! Just this year a Sperm Whale beached in Spain, full of 64 tonnes of plastic in its stomach.

Thanks for reading!


C.


P.S here are some more photos from the day!

References

Auta, H., Emenike, C. and Fauziah, S. (2017). Distribution and importance of microplastics in the marine environment: A review of the sources, fate, effects, and potential solutions. Environment International, 102, pp.165-176.

Law, K. (2017). Plastics in the Marine Environment. Annual Review of Marine Science, 9(1), pp.205-229.

*All images are taken by myself unless otherwise stated.*