While researching this article, I had a shift in perspective about beach pollution. Specifically, oil.

Photo by Rachel Schoeler

I bet you all the money in the world not one person on this amazing planet disagrees that oil spills are abominable. Nobody wants oil-covered beaches and marine life. Atrocious media coverage of oil spill devastation has and will continue to fuel powerful movements for change. And yet, this oozing liquid represents only one form of petroleum-based pollution. The other form is a kind of “hard” oil that is multi-colored, sharp and superabundant. Haida Gwaii has some of the most beautiful shorelines in the world and they are teeming with “hard” oil; they are extensively amok with PLASTIC.

But, there is more and here’s where the shift occurred for me: the spilled oil seen ON our beaches and marine life is now also IN our beaches and marine life, in the form of microplastics. Inside. Birds, fish, bears…and inevitably, ourselves.

Local beach cleanup champion Linda Leitch, along with her partner Dann Braman, has collected over 100 pickup loads of Haida Gwaii beach garbage. Linda reports, “Our shorelines are changing as they accept the onslaught of plastic. This stuff is breaking down into tiny pieces and embedding into the shore, it will be there forever, slowly leaching into the landscape. As an island we were vehemently against the introduction of Enbridge for fear of an oil spill; but the oil spill has already happened. Plastic is a petroleum by-product and it is everywhere. It would be great if it were treated with the same serious attitude; it deserves to be, it’s serious.”

As noted in a recent United Nations report, microplastics present a grave threat to human health and marine ecosystems and are listed as the most dangerous environmental problem facing the word today.

Real Solutions: Never Stop

As long as humans have been around, some of their trash has inevitably ended up on the world’s beaches but, for the most part, it’s been somewhat out of sight and out of mind. Then, following the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated the northeastern coast of Japan, awareness of this issue dramatically spiked. The resulting numbers of lost, injured and missing souls makes my hand hold my heart. An equally staggering result is just how much more material was added to the already largest accumulation of ocean garbage in the world. Swirling about just west of us here on Haida Gwaii:the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

The good news is, Haida Gwaii has a large web of organizations, companies and individuals stewarding marine debris cleanups. From BC Parks, Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, the Village of Queen Charlotte, the CHN and the Haida Gwaii Marine DebrisCommittee…to contractors like Danny Robertson of Highlander Marine Services and the Braman/Leitch team…to individuals, families, community groups and schools who gather up bag upon bag of beach trash... to local artists that turn marine debris into something functional or beautiful. We here on Haida Gwaii are truly doing our part. Key to success: we cannot stop.

Rachel Schoeler, one of the presenters at last month’s Gwaii Haanas Speaker Series and program manager of “the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup,” notes, “the longer that the bigger items [of plastic] are out there, the more they’re going to get pounded and beaten up and broken down by waves and storms. That’s when you get those tiny pieces and that’s when it makes it even harder to clean up.” Chatting on the phone with me, Rachel reported that the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup program has been running for 24 years and has removed 1.2 million kilograms of waste from our shores. Canadian organizations are doing their part. Key to their success: they will not stop.

Ms. Schoeler adds, “We must start at an individual level and really think about the waste that we are producing. When we think about the four “R’s,” we need to remember that “Recycle” is the last one. People think that ‘Oh, if we recycle, then we’re all good’ when really, the first “R” is for “Refuse,” and then it’s Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. If we work in that order, then there is less plastic out there.”

Highlander Marine Services business owner and remote beach cleanup steward Danny

Robertson says, “World plastics represent so much of the material that we find on the shore. Cleaning it is one part of the story, but the biggest issue is dealing with how can we change the way that we behave that can prevent the items from entering the ocean. I think we need to change the way that we exist, and that means reducing our dependency on plastics. They are, hands down, the worst offenders. We live in oneof the most remarkably stunningly beautiful places in the world, still so wild, yet, you go to these remote beaches and there is just so much trash. It’s heart-breaking. Seeing it changes you emotionally and spiritually.”

What can we realistically do? We CAN…

• wean ourselves of disposable plastics & work towards reusable, plastic-free alternatives
• lobby our local government officials: put pressure on manufacturers & make beach cleanup funding a priority
• dispose of beach garbage in a proper manner (a whole other topic)
• find creative ways to keep it out of the landfill (like Linda Leitch’s cabin insulation made from beach Styrofoam!)
• become a beach steward - check out the Canadian Shoreline Cleanup website at ShorelineCleanup.ca where you can register to lead a shoreline cleanup team, set goals and contribute litter data that is useful at a local, national and international level.

Looking towards the future, island-wide marine debris stakeholders are actively engaged in building partnerships with other organizations to secure funding for ongoing initiatives. Together, we can make a difference.