TASS, October 11. Participants in the Clean Teriberka Shore - Recon Mission expedition, which featured volunteers from Russia’s ten cities, removed from beaches in the Barents Sea's Teriberka Bay about 13 cubic meters, or 1.4 tons, of plastic litter. The coast’s plastic pollution ecological problem may solved by volunteers if they have special technical means and equipment, the project’s initiator and leader Ulyana Latka told TASS.
Ecologists say about 10 million tons of plastic litter every year get into the world ocean. Most litter with the Gulf Stream and by Arctic rivers enters the Barents Sea, which is the most highly productive sea in Russia’s waters. Plastic litter, fishing nets pollute beaches, kill whales, seals and seabirds, destroy fish, and reduce the sea’s biological productivity. The project participants wanted to clean up a few sites on the Barents Sea coast in the Murmansk Region and to understand how to restore the purity of the ocean and its shores, without delaying the matter.
"The result of our expedition, which had three stages and which lasted for more than ten days, was above expectations of both organizers and volunteers. First of all, we have brought certain benefits to specific coastal areas and marine ecosystems, and, secondly, we have realized that even with limited equipment like ours, it is possible to achieve positive results. Look: we’ve managed to clean fully the Big Waves beach from plastics and to clean up another eight beaches, including four remote ones - Orlovsky, Krasnaya Skala, Three Claws and the Third Dragon Eggs Beach. From the shores we have removed 64 bags (approximately 13 cubic meters, 1.4 tons) of plastic litter," the project’s leader said.
That plastic litter had been "hiding" everywhere - among giant pebbles, in cracks of rocks, among huge logs thrown out by the sea. That is why mechanical cleaning of beaches is absolutely impossible. Now the project organizers know exactly what technical means volunteers need to cope with the plastic litter problem not only in Teriberka Bay, but also on the entire coast of the Kola Peninsula, she added.
If such equipment is developed and manufactured in sufficient quantities, the volunteer programs will be able to attract not tens or hundreds, but millions of people, she continued, and the environmental problem will begin to shrink.
Project’s implementation
The project has been supported by the Murmansk Region’s Youth Committee and the Whale Protection Fund. The volunteers were happy to see a practical response from Teriberka’s administration, which provided a truck to remove the litter collected at the beaches. Local businesses were also very helpful: the Kovcheg Hotel’s owner has offered a temporary facility to store the equipment between shifts.
"There is really no alternative to volunteers, their attentive and careful work, and, nevertheless, having faced the pollution, we can see the problem is solvable. Next summer we will continue the expedition and will be able to invite more people. I also hope that the Whale Protection Fund and other organizations protecting the Arctic nature will respond to our proposals to develop and manufacture much-needed equipment. All our findings will be presented in reports and proposals to the Whale Protection Fund and the Murmansk Region’s government," the project leader added.