Published: Saturday, 11th April, 2009 9:30am

Atlantic tides blamed for beach litter problem

by Fiona Howard

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THE Atlantic tides are being blamed for the news this week that Helensburgh"s East Bay and Clynder beaches were among the worst for litter in Scotland.

Despite the fact that last year"s Community Spirit Unsung Heroes Award winners the East Bay Action Group carry out a litter pick every week at East Bay, the figures for rubbish collected during the September Beachwatch Survey there and at Clynder lifted the average for the 52 Scottish beaches surveyed.

But Provost Billy Petrie said this week: 'Both Helensburgh"s east Bay and Clynder are historically affected by the tides in the Atlantic and the rubbish found there is brought in every day and is largely not locally generated.

'I recall one memorable time when the East Bay was strewn with hundreds and hundreds of paper Coca Cola cups and an investigation into where they had appeared from overnight revealed that there was an American naval exercise on in the Atlantic and the sailors were throwing the cups overboard. It is the tide that causes the problem at East Bay and the same at Clynder where stuff brought in just seems to catch there round the corner.

'This is no reflection on the East Bay Group who do a wonderful job every week. This is just an unfortunate natural phenomenon which we can"t do much about.'

Organiser of the Beachwatch 2008 event in Clynder, Helen Ap-Rhisiart said: 'We came away with some sense of achievement – hopefully the Marine Conservation Society which organises Beachwatch, can target manufacturers, polluters, councils and so on to try and reduce the debris – but also a sense of horror at just how messy a beast Homo Sapiens is.'

A total of 55,041 litter items were collected on 52 Scottish beaches, on average 2,581.4 items of litter/km were found, more than the UK average of 2,195/km although this represented a 5.37 per cent decrease in density levels compared to 2007 (2,727.8/km).

The overall litter density figure falls to 2,219.6/km when data from East Bay and Clynder beaches are removed.

West of Scotland Liberal Democrat MSP Finnie commented: 'Over a year ago I raised the issue of the unsatisfactory nature of Helensburgh"s shorefront due to rubbish and pollution and I am disappointed to see a year later there has been almost no improvement.

'Although I was pleased a fault in the sewerage in the area was finally located and Scottish Water has made promises to upgrade the treatment infrastructure as a result. Much more still has to be done to fix the problems at East Bay.

'The public has to do more to protect our beaches as 37.5 per cent of the litter on Scotland"s beaches comes from public litter. East Bay is a vital part of Helensburgh which could be polluted beyond repair, if we do not all start working together to tackle the problem of marine litter.'