Fishermen

This article features Lauren Davis (beach watch officer) opining “[Bathroom rubbish] is being flushed away with an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ perception. But sewerage networks and waste water treatment works are not designed to remove these sort of items and, unfortunately, more and more are ending up in our rivers and beaches.”

It goes on to explain “Almost 5,000 volunteers cleaned 376 beaches across the UK for the Big Weekend, covering a total of 167km. Over 330,000 items of litter were collected; 7% of it was bathroom waste, which included almost 16,000 cotton buds.”

With the start of the first major holiday of the season and high summer temperatures it is no surprise that articles like this are in the news and no-one could disagree with the sentiments here.

My work this week thinking (amongst other things) about the relationship between fishermen and conservationists has made me reflect very heavily on who has influence over our coastline – which is a national and in a significant number of rural places, a local , defining feature.

I still don’t think we give coastal issues have enough policy prominence and those who earn their living from the sea are certainly less well understood by most of us than their farming counterparts. I am happy to share what I am learning and its implications for a harbour or beach near you if you drop me a line.