Press release
Marine litter is a concern but not a major problem in the Baltic
Helsinki, 5 July (HELCOM Information Service) – Marine litter is a cause of concern almost everywhere around the Baltic Sea area, but is not seen by experts as a major problem for the marine environment, which is suffering mainly from excessive pollution loads of phosphates and nitrates originating from agriculture and untreated sewage. According to the findings of the just finalised HELCOM project on marine litter, due to a set of environmental protection measures established by the Helsinki Commission, as well the clean-up operations conducted by the local communities, the Baltic can be considered as one of the less littered European seas.
The amounts of litter reported by the HELCOM countries and the information provided by NGOs suggest that currently there is no clear descending or ascending trend in the marine litter found on coasts of the Baltic Sea. The amounts can be substantial in some specific sites near the sources of litter (e.g. shipping routes, rivers, public beaches). The highest amounts in the data from the Baltic Sea were between 700 and 1200 pieces per 100 m of a coast, which is the similar level found on the beaches of the northern North Sea. However, in many cases the average amount of litter found on the coasts varied only between 6 and 16 pieces of litter per 100 m of coast. Also, the amount of litter found in the Baltic Sea is quite low, compared to other seas. According to some estimates, there could be no more than one item of litter per each hectare of the sea surface.
“It can be said that littering is not as big problem in the Baltic Sea as in the North Sea area. Yet attention should be paid to the specific points were littering is more extensive and has harmful effects on the environment, or creates a risk or economical losses to the people using or living at the coast,” says Anne Christine Brusendorff, HELCOM’s Executive Secretary.
The HELCOM project on marine litter is the first effort in the region to look into the scale of the problem, and the actions needed in order to develop and implement specific measures for addressing it. The project was co-funded by UNEP, which has also sponsored similar studies in other regional seas in Europe and around the world. Worldwide the problem of marine litter, also known as marine debris or marine garbage, is recognized and considered to be one of the major threats to the oceans around the world. Globally the US Academy of Sciences has estimated the total input of marine litter into the oceans to be approximately 6.4 million tonnes per year. It is commonly assumed that up to 70 % of the marine litter that enters the sea sinks to the bottom, 15 % is found on beaches and 15 % floats on the water surface.
The main land-based sources of marine litter in the Baltic Sea area are tourism and recreational use of the coasts, as well as commercial shipping (fishing boats, cargo ships, tankers, passenger ships) and pleasure craft. The importance of the source and the amount of litter varies in different parts of the region. In Pärnu region in Estonia it is estimated that the amount of marine litter at the sea has decreased from 100-200 tonnes in 1995-1996 to 1 tonne in 2006. The total amount of marine litter collected during summer months in 2006 in four major Polish ports was 9 300 kg. Mean value per hectare was 23 kg. In 2005 the amount of litter collected in St. Petersburg’s port waters was 1016 m3, in Vyborg/Vysotsk - 19 m3 and in Kaliningrad - 132 m3. The clean-up operations are often quite expensive. It was estimated that the costs for cleaning up the beaches in Bohuslän on the West Coast of Sweden in 1997 were at least 10 million Sek (1,125,000 €). Poland reported that the cost for beach cleaning in five communities and removal of litter from two harbour waters in 2006 was around 570,000 €.
In the Gulf of Bothnia and in the Åland archipelago most litter pieces that could be identified originated from cruise liners going between Finland and Sweden and recreational boating. In the western part of the Gulf of Finland the litter was mainly from cargo ships. According to the text on the labels, most of it originated from Russia, the Baltic countries and Poland. In the eastern Gulf of Finland the biggest part of the litter originated also from shipping industry. Litter pieces from fishing activities were abundant everywhere in the Baltic Sea.
Already since the late 1990s the HELCOM Member States have been implementing a complex set of measures known as the Baltic Strategy to prevent illegal discharges of waste into the Baltic Sea and provide economic incentives to deliver wastes, including garbage, onshore. Today, all discharges into the Baltic Sea of garbage are prohibited. HELCOM requires all ships to deliver all garbage to reception facilities before leaving the port. To further encourage delivery, the countries bordering the Baltic Sea have agreed that ships should not be charged for using such reception facilities, under the “no-special-fee” system. Costs are instead recovered from general harbour fees or general environmental fees, for instance.
Based on the outcomes of the project HELCOM has developed new measures addressing marine litter with a view to have them included into the overarching HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, currently being developed to solve all major environmental problems affecting the Baltic Sea. Among them is a proposal to include marine litter caught in the fishing nets and trawls of fishermen to the “no-special-fee” system for ship generated wastes, as well as a proposal for remuneration of reasonable costs to the fishermen for transporting garbage caught in the fishing nets to the port and reception facilities. The plan will also include measures to raise public awareness on environmental and economic effects of marine litter, and support regular beach clean-up activities.
Follow-up:
Note to Editors:
The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, more usually known as the Helsinki Commission, or HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution.
HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.
For more information, please contact:
Ms. Monika Stankiewicz
Professional Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)207 412 643
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639
E-mail: monika.stankiewicz@helcom.fi
Mr. Nikolay Vlasov
Information Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 (0)207 412 635
Fax: +358 (0)207 412 639
E-mail: nikolay.vlasov@helcom.fi