This affects the entire UK’s beachcombing community.

Many of Britain’s coastal waters are unsafe for swimming and water sports because of, and not to put too fine a point on it, the sea is full of turds and human waste. Who says so, the tell-it-like-it-is Surfers Against Sewage (SAS), arguably one of Britain’s most successful marine conservation and campaigning charities does, and they’ve been lobbying for cleaner, safer beaches and rivers for over three decades.

“Pollution plagues our rivers, seas and coasts, making us sick, spoiling our favourite swim spots,” they say, “destroying delicate ecosystems, killing our wildlife, and threatening ocean recovery. Sewage pollution is everything we flush down the loo or wash down the drain that is released into the environment through sewer overflows, or that washes off the land and roads. Poor waste management is also to blame.”

 So who’s pumping all this crap into our coastal waters? SAS has no doubt who’s to blame.  “The UK’s antiquated sewerage system is woefully inadequate. Water companies have failed to invest to protect the coastal and river environment. They instead rely on a network of around 18,000 licensed sewer overflows to routinely discharge raw sewage into rivers and the ocean.”

“Polluters,” they emphasise, “have simply been profiteering off pollution. Water companies have paid out an eye watering £60 billion in dividends to shareholders over the last 30 years.”

Few I suspect would disagree with them when they say: –

“For people to thrive and live life to the fullest, the ocean must thrive too. And so we need to confront all that threatens it. We are a campaigning charity made up of water lovers who protect the ocean and all it makes possible. We take action on the ground that triggers change at the top. Action from the beachfront to the front-bench.”

I make this plea to all beachcombers. Be the SAS’s eyes and ears.  If you encounter what appears to be a newly polluted beach, or if you see sewage being pumped into the sea, or suffer a sewage caused illness, contact them at https://www.sas.org.uk/ and fill in the online report.

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Happy and pollution free hunting