Today I’m looking at the question, how polluted is the UK sea? When I heard about Oceans Plastic Free‘s #ReimaginingOceans campaign, it got me thinking of how things have changed. Back when I was a child, my parents used to stop us going into the sea, saying it was filthy and such like. A lot of work has been done since the 1980’s, but the sea around the UK still isn’t perfect. So with that in mind, today I’m wondering just how polluted is the UK sea? Keep reading to find out my thoughts.
Exactly How Polluted is the UK Sea?
Back in June, I took the kids to Lytham-St-Annes, on the North-West coast. There were notices up, telling you not to swim in the sea, as sewage had been pumped into the sea, just up the coast. This made me really sad, as we’ve swam in the sea so many times. There’s always been the odd bit of litter along the coast there, but the water itself has, (at first glance) seemed much improved on the litter front.
Due to the black sand underneath, and the rough tide, the water often looks darker than it really is, due to the sand being churned up. (Like in the photo below, from 2018).
There’s plenty of seaside towns in the UK, but Lytham St Annes is my favourite in the North-West.
Sewage Dumped in UK Seas and Rivers
According to Sky News, UK Water companies have pumped raw sewage into Britain’s seas and rivers for more than nine million hours since 2016. So it seems the recent recommendations not to swim in Lytham St Annes wasn’t an isolated incident, or indeed an accident.
While this information doesn’t fully answer the question, how polluted is the UK sea? It does show that our seas and oceans are not as clean as they may look on first glance, or in the movies. Sewage isn’t the only thing to worry about, though.
Reimagining Oceans: Movies in Polluted Waters
When I saw the #ReimaginingOceans campaign on Twitter, it made me really stop and think. The campaign involved a number of do-overs on famous film posters, which feature the ocean. This made me realise that the Little Mermaid was collecting things Humans had lost or thrown away for years, yet not a single piece of real litter is featured in the movie… That’s Hollywood for you!
Films like Aquaman give the impression that litter in the sea and ocean is a thing of the past. Hollywood doesn’t show the reality of everything which lurks under the sea. The #ReimaginingOceans campaign aims to make you stop and think how the films really “should” look…
According to the campaign, even remote areas in the Nordic Seas haven’t escaped the problem of plastic pollution. A study by the Institute of Marine Research in Norway found microplastics from European rivers are finding their way there. The plastics come from a variety of sources, including car tyres, cosmetics and clothing fibres. How scary is that? It makes me wonder what else is lurking beneath the sea, and I don’t mean sharks!
Great White Shark Decline
While the film, JAWS made half of the world terrified of Sharks, the truth is, they are at far greater risk from humans, than we are from sharks. Scientists at the University of Exeter recently announced they had found reports of 1,116 sharks caught up in plastic across the world. Since this only reflects the numbers reported, the true figure is likely to be much higher.
Maybe JAWS 4 should show them getting revenge at us for the amount of litter we dump in their natural habitat?
So in answer to the question, how polluted is the UK sea? I am hazarding a guess at “Very polluted”. Do you know different? Let me know in the comments if you came to a different conclusion.
