Month: June 2023

I spent 5 days at the Shetlands to cycle, some birdwatching and looking for nurdles. I reached the most Northern house of the UK, which is also my most Nothern destination. I was so glad that I did not found them in either of the locations facing the North Sea and also not in the Holm of Skaw, where the North Sea is embraced by the Atlantic Ocean. However, one day later I reached Mavis Grind, where the geological ridge separate both Seas at limited distance. At the Atlantic beach, there were loads of high tide debris, filled with plastic litter and also lots of nurdles. Thus also the Shetland beaches are not clean and their sheep are feeding on it. Removing nurdles from the system is not really possible.

But I noticed another problem namely besides the highway there were cans and plastic bottles all over. That is an issue which could be solved easily I would think.

Between the 15th and 21st of June, I cycled along the East coast of the UK heading for Aberdeen. I visited ad random 13 beaches looking for nurdles. Normally I look for a spot where they might be and I do a search for 10-15 minutes in the upper tide line. Luckily most of the visited beaches did not contain them, even in high tide lines showing small plastics and foam beads. However near Dundee (15 nurdles) and the nearby smal place Broughty Ferry ( the stairway for the beach, was full of debris) there were again over 15 found. Often they were found together with the earsticks, meaning this is a freshwater river source. But this could be a coincidence. At Lunan beach there were spots of small foam beads and 2 nurdles found. My next heading are the Shetlands.

My first week of cycling brought me from NewCastle to North Berwick. Randomly I visite beach sites and look for nurdles. In 5 out of 7 I found nurdles in the high tide debris line. This is more than I expected. 2 times the amount was over 30 beads in area’s of about 1.5 by 2 m. Just in the surface debris. I wil registrate those to Fidra after my trip.
Just some examples below.