The Future

Whitsand Bay Photoshoot 2D

Today a group of us decided to go on a trip to the beach for a shoot. I drove to Whitsand Bay, where the sun was shining and the tide was out, it was the most perfect day to shoot. I am working with the Marine Wildlife Champions Project Brief, who are trying to increase the knowledge and understanding of the marine environment and the challenge it faces. I have been researching into plastic pollution and protection of the sea. When arriving at the beach, I was amazed as to how much rubbish had been washed up, spread the whole way along the beach. It made me realise how serious this is becoming .

Favourite Images From My Shoot

When we were exploring the beach, intrigued as to what had been washed up, a man carrying two large bags of rubbish approached us. He asked us what we were doing and we explainned we were working on a college project all about protecting the Marine Wildlife. The man then introduced himself to us, explainning he worked for Rame Peninsula Beach Care, a registered charity, which has been operating since early 2013.The man explainned that the main aim is to clean the local beaches in South East Cornwall and raise awareness about the harm being done by marine plastic pollution. They run monthly beach cleans, usually attracting between 30 and 60 volunteers, removing around 700 sacks of marine litter each year.Plastic debris poses a serious hazard to marine wildlife, with the UN estimating that it kills over one million seabirds and 100,000 whales, seals, dolphins and turtles each year, either through entanglement or ingestion.

These mussles caught my eye because of the vivid blue on the shell. I used macro to take this image, as last week I participated in a still life macro shoot, so I used my skills that I learnt to take these close up images.

Having spoke to the man that works for Rame Peninsula Beach Care, I learnt that red and orange debris is the most dangerous to the sea creatures. This is because they think the bright colours indicate the rubbish are shrimp, which they then try and eat, but then get the lining caught up in their stomachs.

The most effective way to stop plastic pollution in our oceans is to make sure it never reaches the water in the first place. We all need to do our fair share to stop plastic pollution, individuals need to recycle and never litter, but producers of single use plastic packaging need to do more too. We need producers to design packaging so that it is fully recyclable, and so there is less waste.