Large containers full of used engine oil were found in abundance by Beach Buddies' volunteers during a rain-soaked session on the north west coast of the Island yesterday (Sunday, February 21st).
Four 25-litre containers, full to the brim with used oil, were found in just a short stretch of beach north of Cranstal, but the finds are not unusual.
"We find these all the time," said a spokesman for Beach Buddies. "If there were only one or two now and again we would perhaps think these containers had been accidentally washed over the side of fishing boats, but we find so many that this has to have been done deliberately.
"We find plastic containers full of oil on pretty much every beach cleaning session in particular areas, such as the northern and western coastlines and southern locations such as Brewery Bay and Langness.
"We have been keeping a record of these, and found a total of 59 during 2015. It would be naive to believe these had all be accidentally lost over the side of a fishing boat, or any other boat."
One container, found on the beach at Kirk Michael had leaked most of its oil into the sand and had been weighed down with a large piece of metal, proving it had been deliberately dumped at sea.
Beach Buddies recycles all the used oil collected by its volunteers, emptying the containers into special tanks at the Island's amenity sites.
"We know that the oil is put to good use when we recycle it, but what we don't understand is why the boat owners don't bring the used oil back into port and take a couple of minutes to use the recycling tanks which are found at all the Island's ports.
"If it's fishing boats who are doing this then this is even more worrying, as they are throwing oil into the environment from which they make a living."
The beach cleaning session at Cranstal was otherwise routine and the 14 volunteers who arrived in very wet conditions found large amounts of mostly plastic material, plus the ubiquitous baby wipes which are normally found on Ramsey beach, but which had been washed further north by recent storms.
A final count of bags was not possible as bags were deposited along the coastline in various positions, but in one small section we had in excess of 30. Rubbish was so concentrated it took only a few yards to fill a large bin bag.
Meanwhile, another team from the Probation Service travelled a bit further north and gathered loads of rubbish from the beach at the Point off Ayre, including a good amount of commercial fishing kit such as nets, ropes and plastic containers.
Everyone went home absolutely drenched to the skin, but with a sense of pride for doing a truly fantastic job. Cranstal beach is a really bad area for marine litter, but today's session left a one mile stretch beach in pristine condition.
The section between Cranstal and the Point of Ayre still needs a lot of work, and we will be back again in a fortnight's time - hopefully with some spring sunshine!
Photo- Regular Beach Buddies volunteers and sponsors of our Ballaghennie bin, Sue and Alan Blythe of Blythe Financial, with their dogs and just a few of the bags of rubbish collected at Cranstal.
