Marine plastic littering along Orkney beaches
During 21-23 April an international group from scientific institutions, organisations and NGOs gathered in Orkney to discuss challenges associated with marine plastic littering, including from fisheries and aquaculture industries. Participants included researchers, fisheries organisations, island authorities and NGOs working on monitoring and clean-up operations.
by Kristine Cerbule (HWU) and Roger B. Larsen (UiT), Lead of the Thematic Network on Arctic Plastic Pollution.
The meeting was the first physical (and online) gathering in a two-year (2025-2027) project on “Collaboration for research and education addressing marine pollution and clean-up operations the Arctic and Sub-Arctic areas” funded by UArctic. The meeting was hosted by Heriot-Watt University (HWU) in Stromness, Orkney.
The meeting was divided into three sections and arranged with the help from HWU staff members, led by Dr Kristine Cerbule. Across the sessions, contributions highlighted that marine litter in island communities, and Arctic and sub-Arctic regions can be to a large scale linked to fishing and aquaculture activities, monitoring gaps, and the need to better connect the local evidence.
Day 1 Presentations: During the meeting, we had introductions from project partners i.e., Karoline Hasti Rutle (The Norwegian Fishermen’s Association), John Berry (Greener Orkney & Scottish Islands Federation), Roger Larsen (UiT the Arctic University of Norway), Jakob Strand (Aarhus University - online), Mark Santos (Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University), and Vicki Last (Scottish Islands Federation). The meeting was attended by participants from project participant organizations (Neil Kermode and Jane Nelson (Greener Orkney), Hilde Rødås Johnsen (SALT Lofoten), and Bo Eide (Tromsø municipality)). Additional participants joined meeting online and in person, including crew from NGO “In the Same Boat”, Jenni Kakkonen, Danny Morris, and Emily Murphy Gray from Orkney Island Council, and Phil Bennett from Orkney Regional Inshore Fisheries Group, along with other participants from HWU.
Presentations compared experiences in different Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, including, among others, experiences from managing fisheries-related marine litter in Norway, derelict fishing gear retrieval using ROVs in Canada, marine litter clean-up operations in Greenland, and Scottish island challenges and experiences with marine litter collection infrastructure.
Creels (pots) and accessories (rubber coating and buoy lines) and small net-sections from bottom trawls. Photo: Kristine Cerbule
Day 2 Beach cleaning: In addition to the UArctic partner group members, invited participants from Scottish Islands Federation, Orkney Island Council and In the Same Boat participated the beach cleaning day. We decided to spend the day along an exposed beach (Evie, Orkney) with mainly lost creels including buoy lines. It was estimated that these founds counted more than 20 m3 and it was evident that much of this pollution had been on the beach for years. Other typical marine plastic litter items like bottles, cans, cut-offs from net and ropes, packaging plastics, etc. were limited compared to creels and accessories. This reflected earlier findings during the workshop. After beach cleaning, the group gathered at the HWU campus (Stromness) to summarise the observations and comment on finds along the beach. The finds were compared to earlier beach cleaning operations along Orkney islands organised by “In the same boat” and Greener Orkney. Participants noted similarities with local community led clean-ups and highlighted the increasing pressure on volunteer-led systems due to recurring deposition events following bad weather and storms.
Fisheries related steel, ropes, rubber and various plastics in a bundle. Photo: Kristine Cerbule
Day 3 Presentation, discussion and summary: We continued the networking meeting with experiences from beach cleaning operations, methodology and ways of mitigating the negative impacts marine plastic littering creates for the nature, including animals and humans. These presentations were given by NGO “In the same boat”, Roger Larsen (UiT), Joel Chaney (HWU) and Kristine Cerbule (HWU). During the final discussions we exchanged more information from Canada, Greenland, Norway, Scotland/Orkney and summed up the meeting as good and inspiring learning for all participants. It was suggested that we opt to work for a common standard on how to register and report marine litter finds.
Second part of this networking project will be held in Arctic Norway on board research vessel “Helmer Hanssen”. During the period November 3-9 we have planned to conduct a clean-up mission along the coast of Finnmark county under lead of personnel from partner the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries. This workshop will focus on experience with offshore marine litter retrieval and clean-up and monitoring methods in the Arctic.
Hard work at the Evie beach with several creels (pots) entangled in buoy lines. Photo: Roger B. Larsen