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Turquoise piece of rope and purple clump of plastic entangled in seaweed on a beach.

Too much has been dropped into the ocean

Updated:8/9/2022

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Pieces of rope, cut-offs and smaller pieces of plastic constitute a serious litter issue in Norway.

The vast volume has been documented through registrations made by volunteers in Rydde, surveys conducted by professionals and research. This is how many pieces of rope were registered in Rydde in 2020 and 2021.

Many longer lengths of rope were also registered. Findings are registered by 20 per cent of Rydde users. A lot of clean-up operations along the coast register weight only, but not the actual findings.

In 2020, rope came top in the national clean-up statistics and also came first with Miljølære, where rope accounted for 21% of findings during clean-up operations.

The year before, Mepex conducted deep-dives at 50 beaches along the entire coast. Rope accounted for 20 per cent of findings by weight and 8.6 per cent by number.

Overview of findings in coastal counties
CountyRegistered pieces of rope
39.453
11.265
9053
4493
4586
3623
2542
1398
292
187

Fiskeri og havbruk er den kategorien denne forsøplingen blir koblet til i registreringer. Blant fagfolk handler det om sjøbaserte kilder, hvor de største er fiskeri, havbruk og sjøfart.

Denne forsøplingen kommer også fra turisme, fritidsfiske, offshore og båtfolk.

I Rydderapporten til Hold Norge Rent fra 2020 utgjorde avfall fra fiskeri og havbruk 21,8 % av ryddet marin forsøpling.

I dypdykket til Mepex i 2019 var fiskeri og havbruk den største kilden på 46,2 %, men det var store regionale forskjeller.

Would you like to explore more statistics from Rydde?

Visit the Rydde statistics page

⚓💙Together, we can reduce littering💙⚓

Everyone who uses the sea can help reduce this type of plastic by being conscious of the fact that small pieces of rope that fall overboard will contribute negatively towards an already significant environmental problem. We need to do what we can to avoid dropping pieces of rope into the sea.

Why?

Because marine litter constitutes a serious environmental problem. Plastic is harmful to marine life, which we also eat and is one of the most important resources in Norway.

Clean-up operations are crucial to combatting marine litter, but only a small proportion of the plastic that ends up in the sea can be cleared. Most therefore ends up remaining in the sea. And it stays there for a very long time. Up to 600 years for materials such as nylon. It is therefore crucial that we prevent plastic from ending up in the sea in the first place. We need to stop littering.

Remember the common sense rules about rope when at sea

Time to stop dropping stuff?