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When you look out to sea you imagine this incredibly pristine place
but yet the reality is far from the truth. Since Christmas 2013 and going
into January and February of 2014
we have had eight successive storms. These have brought with it
huge swells and also wild winds. In fact the last time we had one
it was one of the stronger storms in the history of
weather records in Ireland. During these Atlantic storms our coastline gets
battered
and more recently our Sand dune system at Derrynane
has been torn asunder. Now it will probably come back again
over successive months but it is what is left behind is the really
worrying trend.
Along Derrynane's coastline but not only here but right across the western seaboard and
as far as
Britain and also along, Spain France,
Italy and all the way up to Scandinavian countries it's what we
don't see under the water that's a threat to our beautiful environment here.
The local community can only do so much. It is during these storms
that the hidden world beneath the waves shows itself
along the strand line and that is - plastic pollution.
The ultimate goal would be to find a replacement for plastic
but as it is, we can't do that, so we are forced every time we get stormy weather
to go down to the beach and clean it up. So the local community in Caherdaniel
have mobilised. They have gone down to the beaches and
have started to clean up the mess that the sea has left behind.
I've been diving for over 35 years
and in the beginning there was very little plastic to be seen in the sea but
in 35 years
every time there's a storm or a big sea
all this plastic comes ashore. So no matter what we do
it seems that we will be cleaning the beaches
from here to eternity, unless things change. It is great to see a local
communities such Caherdaniel
going to the trouble to mobilize and get down to the beach and start
picking up plastic. It will be up to our kids generations
to make change so that the environment, particularly the marine environment
can be cleaned up en-mass. There's only so much that the local community can do.
Every time the tide comes in or a storm happens we've got more marine plastic to
deal with,
marine litter. So we can't go on like this. Something concrete will have to be done.
We have got to mobilize our local representatives
who in turn have to mobilize and get
the national politicians to listen to
really what's a threat to our tourism industry here
all across the island of Ireland. If we can do that then it will take the first
step
to make sure that when people come to visit areas like Caherdaniel / Derrynane
that they truly are in a pristine environment. That they can swim in Clean
Seas.
That they can walk beaches free of plastic and when that happens
that's when we can really tell the truth!