Volunteers who removed over 400 pieces of litter from a single beach on Sunday are being praised for their efforts.

Plastic waste dominated the items found by nearly 30 volunteers who scoured Chapel Beach in Port St Mary.

They covered the shoreline, snorkeled along the rock line and even used scuba equipment to head out into the bay and remove items from below the low tide mark.

The event was organised by Michelle Haywood from Discover Diving in Port St Mary as part of the Marine Conservation Society’s Beach Clean weekend.

James Davis reports (text, below, from attached audio file):

There were 417 pieces of litter in all, 63 per cent of which was plastic which degrades very slowly. Items included drinks bottles, sweet wrappers and a variety of plastic sheeting, as well as a few surprising items - a Betamax video tape, an L-plate and the base of a traffic cone!

Michelle says the main difficulty is the fact the plastic takes years to break down, causing concern about the consumption of tiny pieces by fish and seabirds.

Although not surprising, there were a number of pieces of fishing net recovered, and some of the waste must have come from recreational boat users as a small boat fuel filter was found.

Milk cartons from off-Island supermarkets were also discovered but one piece of good news was the total absence of any sewage related debris.