It was reported in the last week of July that two ships had collided on the River Tyne and it had resulted in millions of tiny nurdles, or plastic pellets, being spilled into the River Tyne.
On 28 July, Northumberland Wildlife Trust responded to this environmental disaster.
The Trust made it clear that it was very concerned about the spill and what might happen to the coastline and the marine environment. It also noted that while the nurdles are very small, they can have a harmful impact on birds, fish and other marine animals, who can think that they are food and ingest them, leading to malnutrition, starvation and other devastating impacts in the food chain.
Another major issue is that nurdles can stay in the environment for decades, creating long term pollution problems.
The nurdles that spilt into the marine environment rapidly spread along the coastline and this has now become what is thought to be the largest spill of nurdles anywhere in the UK or indeed northern Europe.
The Trust recognises the ongoing efforts led by the community to respond to the incident, remarking that “the response from local residents has been remarkable with hundreds of people coming together to protect the beaches and wildlife that made the region so special. However Community Action must be supported by a coordinated and properly resourced a special response”.
Working together to clean up the spill
Northumberland Wildlife Trust also said that they will work with those leading the response and share reliable information.
They advise that any residents wishing to get involved, should follow guidance given by North Tyneside council so that any participation is safe.
Local people can contact their local MP to express their concerns, join a local community-led clean-up group in North and South Shields, and sign up for updates from Surfer’s Against Sewage here.
Rhiannon Studholme
Northumberland Wildlife Trust Eco Mentor, Rhiannon Studholme, commented:
“This incident is devastating to me both professionally and personally. My role at Northumberland Wildlife Trust is to help young people in our local area connect and care for our local blue spaces and I am also a resident and a regular visitor to our beautiful coastline.
“It is heartbreaking to see this disaster unfold but, at the same time, truly inspiring to see the local community working together to try to help with the clean-up.
“Looking forward we need to continue to advocate for our seas and coastline and ensure it is protected from any further harm.”
South Shields Surf CIC
I also asked Nick Jones from South Shields Surf CIC how he had reacted to the problem of the nurdles:
“I got some messages around 23 July. I was away on holiday with my kids, so I was not on it. You see the news and you’re heartbroken that the environment is being taken for granted. I was a little removed, but that changed on Sunday 26 July. The people coordinating the response north of the river were doing amazing work. They got in touch with me to coordinate the response because of the tides, and I was best person to deal with the response south of river as I run the surf school In South Shields.
“The council had got specialists contracted in, which was good, but there was no volunteer plan in place, due to complicated reasons. They would like people to help in the clean-up, but it took the council three days to do risk assessments for both personal safety and the environment and get a volunteer plan in place after we got involved.
“The nurdle specialists said to just get down as the issue was time sensitive due to tides. There were increasing tide surges this week, making it easier to collect the nurdles, but when tide sizes go down they will be trapped high up on the beach and will be trampled into the sand.
“We were led by the volunteer coordinators north of the river. Sally from Yonder Surf School did a wonderful job and was instrumental in getting the job done.
“There is still lot of work still to be done. There has been a great response from the community with 260 in the volunteer group chat following the safety guidelines and the involvement of Councillor Matt Blair and Jacob from the surf school.
“Now it is about pressuring Port of Tyne to make it easier for volunteers to get in and help with the clean-up, with an open letter being delivered to Port of Tyne CEO on Monday.It has been revealed that it appears that the response from Port of Tyne has been incredibly slow. Response pushed forward by volunteers is an indictment of a failure of corporate responsibility.
“This was always a tide sensitive issue and instead of just putting everything onto solving this problem, information has been drip-fed out and responses delayed. The three companies involved (and we don’t know exactly whose fault it is) or their exact level of investment in the issue, but they could have done better and have left it to volunteers on a time sensitive issue.
“And worst of all three companies involved – B and G Freight, Cadelear and Port of Tyne – reported a net profit of over £290 million last year. This was mostly Cadelear, but this level of profit is three times the annual grant of South Tyneside council. It looks they are waiting to find who exactly is to blame and assign who is paying out with insurance rather than getting on the job with clean-up with their vast resources.
“Where is the information about what exactly is happening?
“We are already fighting to save our Tyne from corporate destruction, and it’s just another unnecessary blow where it feels impossible for the average to fight back.
“The community response shows that we can when we come together”.
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