By April Burt and edited by Jeremy Raguain, Seychelles Islands Foundation.
An estimated 12.7 million metric tonnes of plastic pollution enter our ocean annually from land and through waste dumped from ships. Some of this plastic pollution eventually sinks to the ocean floor, the rest is pushed around the ocean on currents. Islands all over the world are accumulating vast quantities of this plastic pollution along their coastlines, on beaches and in the surrounding ecosystems. This down-stream accumulation is taking its toll at both local and national level and cannot be ignored, especially in light of the accumulating evidence of the detrimental effects of plastic, microplastics and plastic leachate on species and ecosystems.
The Atoll of Aldabra in the south-west Indian Ocean, a marine UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982, is no exception to this despite its isolation from populated areas and its long-term protection. Aldabra comprises four main islands encircling a lagoon that stretches to 30km in length, the islands are separated by fast running tidal channels and in total there is around 200km of coastline. The atoll is managed by the Seychelles Islands Foundation (SIF), a public trust and the only inhabitants on Aldabra since the 1970’s is a small research station on the island of Picard which houses around 10–15 SIF staff. Over the years the Aldabra team have witnessed more and more trash arriving on the coastlines and for many years have conducted beach cleans in the accessible areas close to the research station. But the atoll is so large - its lagoon being large enough to fit Seychelles’ main island of Mahé or the Manhattan island - and the trash is arriving so quickly that the coastlines became clogged, having direct impacts on the wildlife that inhabits the islands or comes ashore to nest, such as the green turtle population.
To address this growing issue on Aldabra Atoll, SIF initiated the Aldabra Clean-Up Project, an international collaboration with the Queen’s College at the University of Oxford. The project brought together a team of 12 young Seychellois and Oxford graduate students and together they developed, planned and carried out a clean-up expedition with educational outreach and scientific research. Over 5 weeks the team removed >25 tonnes of plastic pollution from key turtle nesting beaches. The waste collected was weighed and categorised and additional surveys were conducted in each coastal habitat type to estimate the total remaining marine plastic litter on Aldabra and its composition. The composition data was used to determine the main sources of litter arriving on Aldabra, which was dominated by waste from the industrial fishing industry - buoys, ropes, nets - and 360,000 individual flipflops. The results (1) show that the amount removed in this first clean-up expedition represents just 5% of the >500 tonnes estimated to have accumulated.
To fund the clean-up expedition SIF adopted new types of sustainable financing by seeking funds from corporate sponsors and crowdfunding, through pitch packs and media campaigns. The team were also successful in securing grants, the main one from Seychelles new Blue Grants fund. This funding mechanism was featured as one of the IUCN Panorama Solutions for a Healthy Planet (2). The team, led by April Burt and Jeremy Raguain from SIF recorded all costs associated with the clean-up, and the effort required to do so, by timing clean-up sessions and estimating the amount of litter collected per person per unit time. The results estimate a full-island clean-up will cost $4.7 million or $8,900 per tonne of litter —well beyond the capacity of local, non-profit organisations like SIF. The SIF, like other island management organisations, is faced with a difficult choice. They cannot leave their islands covered in trash, but with already stretched resources for management and conservation how do they pay for these clean-ups, and what do they do with the huge amounts of plastic litter?
The SIF team are committed to continuing the project until Aldabra’s coastlines are clear of plastic pollution and with long-term management strategies implemented. Before another clean-up takes place however, there needs to be some mechanisms for dealing with the removed waste so it doesn’t end up in land-fill. Recycling solutions exist elsewhere in the world to enable a circular economy for the majority of plastic types. Investment is needed to set up these facilities in the Seychelles and the region to support a circular economy, reduce harmful landfill alternatives, and create revenue through jobs and products created from this new industry. Further research is certainly needed to scope the feasibility and financial returns from such an investment; the question is: Who will take up the gauntlet?
The project is one of the first of its kind to quantify the substantial costs and resources involved in clean-ups which will inform future efforts and management of this universal problem. Despite these costs the team from SIF conclude that clean‐up efforts are a vital management action for islands like Aldabra given the serious detrimental effects of plastic litter on marine ecosystems and should be integrated alongside policies directed at ‘turning off the tap’.
Largely in response to this clean-up and other similar efforts by local conservation organisations, the Seychelles Government decided to accede to the remaining MARPOL annexes in 2019; most importantly to Annex V- Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships. National funding priorities have been directed towards regional waste management and circular economy solutions and the research has been used as evidence in a call (3) to end the use of drifting fish aggregating devices in the Indian Ocean Tuna industry. With this progress and the growing commitment to waste management solutions, SIF is optimistic that we can reclaim the coastlines of Aldabra from plastic and reduce the impacts to this important biodiversity hotspot.
Within the UN’s Ocean Decade, SIF will again join forces with local and international partners across the public and private sectors, inviting volunteers, donors and academia to tackle plastic pollution on Aldabra and be involved with further research, education and reprocessing with the aim of informing management in Seychelles and other Small Islands Developing States. Until then, the lessons learned and research from the Aldabra Clean-Up project remains accessible and useful to those joining the fight to turn the tide on plastic pollution.
This article is part of an online series dedicated to the UN Ocean Decade. One story will be published each week that is related to initiatives, new knowledge, partnerships, or innovative solutions that are relevant to the following seven Ocean Decade outcomes. Access the special digital issue dedicated to the Ocean Decade here.
References
- April J. Burt, Jeremy Raguain, Cheryl Sanchez, Jude Brice, Frauke Fleischer-Dogley, Rebecca Goldberg, Sheena Talma, Martyna Syposz, Josephine Mahony, Jake Letori, Christina Quanz, Sam Ramkalawan, Craig Francourt, Ivan Capricieuse, Ash Antao, Kalsey Belle, Thomas Zillhardt, Jessica Moumou, Marvin Roseline, Joel Bonne, Ronny Marie, Edward Constance, Jilani Suleman & Lindsay A. Turnbull (2020). The costs of removing the unsanctioned import of marine plastic litter to small island states https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-71444-6
- Funding the Aldabra Clean Up Project through Corporate sponsorship and Crowdfunding: https://panorama.solutions/en/solution/funding-aldabra-clean-project-through-corporate-sponsorship-and-crowdfunding
- More than 100 organisations call for urgent curb on destructive drifting-FADs to rebuild tuna stocks and protect fragile marine ecosystems: https://mailchi.mp/ipnlf/more-than-100-organisations-call-on-the-iotcfor-urgent-curb-on-destructive-drifting-fads
Island Under Siege, The story of the Aldabra Clean-Up Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf3PcL8gUpU&t=10s
