'50 years of Litter on Skye'. A community webinar on 26th November at 1900
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'50 years of Litter on Skye'. A community webinar on 26th November at 1900 via Zoom
On 26th November, Dr Tom Stanton and Professor Deirdre McKay will deliver a webinar summarising the work of their team investigating the natural and social dimensions of marine litter on Skye, and further afield. Since January 2023, the team have spent six weeks on Scotland’s West Coast researching marine litter using beach surveys, drones, and community interviews.
This work has been informed by questions and concerns about marine litter raised by the communities who have supported us. This webinar will feed back initial findings of our research, share details of the work we are doing beyond Skye, introduce new lines of inquiry that have developed since our summer 2024 fieldwork, and outline what we are hoping to do next. We look forward to speaking to you on the 26th!
Skye and Lochalsh Environment Forum is delighted to host this event where Tom and the team will speak of their work in Skye, and elsewhere this summer, and their plans to return in 2025.
The webinar will start at 1900 on the 26th and will last around 75 minutes or so.
In order to prevent 'Zoom bombing' if you would like to attend the webinar please email for the Zoom invitation which we will email by return.
In March of this year the '50 Years of Litter on Skye' team produced a short video of the project. You can watch the film here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G4LVAEn1s0
Background.
A short film produced by Loughborough University hopes to highlight the issue of coastal pollution on the Isle of Skye and the efforts of researchers and environmentalists who are fighting to keep the beaches clean.
Working closely with local groups, the team of scientists from Loughborough, Nottingham and Keele visited the island’s remote shores last summer (2023) to analyse the extent of the litter washed up by ocean currents.
It comes after lead researcher Dr Tom Stanton found a 50-year-old academic paper which warned about the impact of plastics and rubbish being brought to Skye shores by sea.
The film, 50 years of litter on Skye, follows the team as they discover isolated beauty spots such as Camasunary that are carpeted in plastics and discarded fishing equipment.
The aim of the project is to find new techniques for mapping polluted beaches, including with drones, to see if the true extent of the rubbish can be measured.
