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Beachwatch
Beachwatch is a long running beach litter monitoring project by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). Monitoring is undertaken through surveying / cleaning events, where volunteers record the litter found over 100-metres of beach strandline (Beachwatch Team, n.d.). The Great British Beach Clean, a component of Beachwatch, takes place over a week in September where citizens nationwide are encouraged to get involved with Beachwatch cleans. The Great British Beach Clean is one of the longest running beach litter monitoring records worldwide, having been on the go for three decades (Beachwatch Team, n.d.). With this vast archive of evidence, the MCS has a powerful voice when campaigning for legislative changes relating to marine pollution.
Recent Results:
While the 30-year record of Beachwatch data is not available online, plenty of recent findings are discussed in the MCS annual reports and website. Fig. 1 displays the upward trend in litter collected by the MCS over the last five years. This total combines Great British Beach Cleans with other Beachwatch projects like Team beach cleans and school/youth group cleans. Over both 2022/23 and 2023/24, the total amount of litter collected reached 17 tonnes.
As of 2023, an annual ‘Beachwatch Report’ has been released every spring. A few headlines from the most recent 2023 report are summarised below (MCS, 2024a):
To consider the longer term picture of UK beach pollution, there are signs of both positive and negative change. For example, while plastic bag observations have declined by 4/5th thanks to the 5p charge, drink related items have now become the most prominent type of beach litter, with only 3% of cleans failing to find something in this category (Common, 2024; Beachwatch Team, n.d.). The overall picture though is a hopeful one, with an ongoing general decrease in beach litter since 2016 (Beachwatch Team, n.d.).
Achievements:
These are some of the notable changes that have come about as a direct result of Beachwatch findings and lobbying by the MCS:
To learn about the EGCP’s locally based beach cleaning project, please see our pages on 'Turning the Plastic Tide' linked below.
Fig. 1: Annual tonnage collected during Beachwatch events. Data from Marine Conservation Society (2021, 2022, 2023, & 2024c)
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Beachwatch Team (n.d.) The importance of beach cleaning data
Common (2024) Your Ocean Volunteering - “Together we can make a difference”
Marine Conservation Society (2021) Annual Impact Report & Accounts 2020/2021
Marine Conservation Society (2022) Annual Impact Report & Accounts 2021 - 2022
Marine Conservation Society (2023) Annual Impact Report & Accounts 2022 - 2023
Marine Conservation Society (2024a) State of the beaches: Beachwatch report
Marine Conservation Society (2024b) Campaign win for banning plastic in wet wipes
Marine Conservation Society (2024c) Annual Impact Report & Accounts 2023 - 2024
Live - Next review due 07/03/2026
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E-mail: ian.hay@stateofthecoast.scot
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