a.    Extent of the activity

Refuse and litter enters the marine environment from a variety of sources including; boats and shipping, down watercourses and drains, from beaches, and blown off the land.

Precise details on the distribution of litter within the SAC are not known.

Litter on Welsh beaches averaged 2432 items per kilometre in 1998 (MCS Beachwatch ‘98). Plastics consistently make up the largest proportion of beach litter, typically over 50%. The majority of litter is non-sourced but of the rest, fishing and tourist/recreational inputs are the largest.

Within the UK Wales has the second highest litter count per kilometre of beach, second only to Scotland. Welsh details of the 1998 MCS Beachwatch survey are given in Table 18.

Table 18.  Welsh sources of litter recorded in Beachwatch’98

Source	No of Items	Items/km	%
Tourist/recreational	12471	718.3	29.5
Fishing	5915	340.7	14.0
Sewage related debris	2717	156.5	6.4
Shipping/galley waste	1660	95.6	3.9
Fly-tipped	259	14.9	0.6
Medical	28	1.6	0.1
Non-sourced	19174	1104.3	45.4
Total items	42224	2431.9	100
No. beaches surveyed		Length Surveyed (km)
42		17.4

rends from annual beach clean surveys shown an rapid increase in the amount of litter on our beaches. Within the UK as a whole the MCS Beachwatch identified a 24% increase in number of items per kilometre between 1997 and 1998 and a near 200% increase since 1994.

b.    Mechanism for effects on feature

i.   Entanglement

Dolphins may become entangled in certain kinds of litter. This may restrict movement and result in injury, starvation and drowning. Line and netting are of particular hazard. See ‘Entanglement & Ingestion’.

ii.  Ingestion

Dolphins are known to occasionally ingest items of litter directly or through their prey. These may cause internal injury or blockage and result in death.

iii.  Sea bed effects

Sea bed communities and prey species may be damaged through entanglement or ingestion. Sessile organisms can be smothered by plastic debris which may affect their ability to feed and may cause sediments to become anoxic. See ‘Habitat Impacts’.

c.    Management response

i.   Rationale

Marine litter can enter the site from a wide variety of sources and from some distance away. Whilst most types of littering at sea are offences under the Merchant Shipping Regulations, [139] (the UK’s transposition of Annex V of MARPOL [140] ) and it is an offence to drop litter in any public place, (including beaches) under section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA), 1990, there is little policing of these and significant littering still occurs.

Merchant Shipping Regulations 1988 (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage):

These regulations apply to all shipping and boating, as well as to offshore platforms. They prohibit the disposal of plastics anywhere in UK territorial waters and the disposal of other types of pollutant within specific distances from nearest land.

In the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea the dumping of specific waste types is prohibited within specific distances.

Table 19.  Summary of the prohibition on disposal of garbage in the Merchant Shipping Regulations, 1988.

>25 nautical miles from land	12 - 25 nautical miles from land	3 -12 nautical miles from land	0-3 nautical miles from land
Plastics Oily wastes	Plastics, lining & packaging material that floats Oily wastes	Plastics, lining & packaging material that floats Oily wastes Garbage if not ground to <25mm	No waste or rubbish of any kind may be thrown overboard

Improvements are needed both in the attitudes of mariners to littering and also to the provision of services to facilitate removal of waste in ports and harbours. Reductions in litter on beaches are made through beach cleaning operations including local council and voluntary beach cleaning events as well as improvements in waste water treatment facilities by DCWW. Removal of beach litter might appear to only address the problem once litter has come ashore and is of reduced risk to marine life. However, it is likely that a certain amount of beach litter is remobilised into the marine environment and so any removal from beaches is likely to be beneficial.

Whilst the scale of any current ill effects on the Cardigan Bay dolphins are unknown, levels of marine litter are increasing within the UK and will therefore become an increasing threat to the bottlenose dolphins. Littering studies and coordinated strategies for the reduction of marine litter such as the Minch Project [141] propose methods such as the following for reducing litter:

Reduction of litter from land based sources

i.    Provision of adequate rubbish disposal and recycling facilities for the public, along with publicity on their location etc.

ii.   Incorporation of beaches in local authority waste management plans.

iii.  Stricter enforcement of anti-littering laws to deter fly-tipping and littering by businesses and the public.

iv.  Rapid improvement by water companies of combined sewer overflow systems which service coastal towns.

v.   Encouragement by local authorities and relevant land owners of voluntary local initiatives such as Adopt-A-Beach and river clean ups.

Reduction of Pollution from Ships and Fishing Vessels:

i.    Effective development of comprehensive port waste management plans under the merchant Shipping (Port Waste Reception Facilities) Regulations 1997.

ii.   Further education and training of ship owners, ship operators, crews, port users, fishermen, and recreational boat users, with regard to their responsibility in preventing marine pollution.

Reduction of the Input of Sewage Related Debris:

i.   Labelling of sanitary products with the correct disposal information: Bag It and Bin It - Please Don't Flush It.

ii.  Provision of information and education to encourage the public to 'Bag it and Bin It'.

iii. Education in schools on the issue of sanitary waste and its correct disposal.

iv. Provision of disposal facilities for sanitary waste in all public toilets.

ii.  Type of response

F4 : There is a known mechanism for the activity to have an effect, but insufficient evidence at present to determine whether or not it is having a significant adverse effect.

iii.  Actions including links to other policies/plans/measures

• Undertake surveys on beaches to identify whether they contain marine debris likely to entangle dolphins, and, if so, identify where beach collections would be most appropriate.

•   Investigate the source of litter found during beach litter surveys in order to target action aimed at preventing littering at sea.

• Conduct beach litter surveys to determine whether education programmes or other controls have led to reductions in marine debris.

• Endeavour to support projects which will reduce the impact of litter on the Cardigan Bay bottlenose dolphins.

[139] Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 1377 The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of pollution by Garbage) Regulations 1998 and Statutory instrument 1998 No. 254 The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution) (Amendment) Order 1998

[140] Annex V of MARPOL 73/78 Regulations for the Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships

[141] Marine Litter in the Minch: http://www.w-isles.gov.uk/w-isles/minch/litter.htm