Irish beaches scourged by plastic

A stroll on a beach anywhere in Ireland reveals the scale of the marine littering problem, says Donal Hickey

Plastic floating on the oceans is catastrophic for sea life, globally, with 100,000 turtles, whales, dolphins, and seals being killed annually by various forms of marine waste.

The other day, while walking on a popular beach at Inch, in the Dingle Peninsula, Co Kerry, which I’ve known for decades, the clear impression was the littering problem has got even worse. Plastic was everywhere, entangled in clumps of seaweed washed in by the tide and scattered on the sand. There, too, was the rotting carcass of a dead goat.