his time, at Donaghadee we were joined by 12 volunteers from the North Down area. Donaghadee harbour itself was spotless but we managed to cover a lot of ground to the south of the harbour and, despite an initially clean appearance, collected 24 bags of rubbish, a discarded tire and a burnt out mattress. It is satisfying, but also saddening, to see how much waste can be removed from a strip of shore in such a short time. As ever, plastic is the main culprit here – and another briefing from Ulster Wildlife's Living Seas Officer, Dave Wall, helped to drive home just how persistent and toxic it is in our marine environment.

While every piece we remove that could have harmed wildlife is a small victory, ultimately, we must encourage policy-makers and the general public to support more extensive recycling of plastic packaging, proper disposal of plastic waste and avoiding use of single-use plastics, so that the flow of plastic into our seas and waterways can someday, somehow be stopped.