Modern society is heavily reliant on plastics. Take a moment to look around and consider what you could do without in your daily life.
In early September, students and staff from UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – participated in a beach-cleaning initiative along two beaches traditionally regarded as pristine natural treasures. For many participants, the activity served as an eye-opener: what appears to be a “paradise” from a distance often reveals a very different reality upon closer inspection. Hidden among the sand, pebbles, rocks, and vegetation near the shore lie significant amounts of plastic waste.
Over the past seven decades, the use of plastics has increased dramatically, and Arctic beaches have become the final destination for much of the floating plastic debris. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 12 million tonnes of litter—85% of which is plastic—enter the marine environment annually.This figure is projected to triple by 2040.
While modern fisheries have greatly benefited from user-friendly plastic materials such as polyamide (nylon) and polyethylene (courlene), these advances have come at an environmental cost. The transition from natural fibres such as cotton, hemp, and sisal to synthetic, durable plastic fibres enabled the development of larger, more efficient fishing gear. However, the very materials that revolutionized industrial fish harvesting and aquaculture production are now contributing to severe environmental and societal challenges.
In addition to the visible marine litter that accumulates along beaches—much of it originating from fisheries and aquaculture—these industries are also responsible for producing macro- and microplastics as a result of abrasion during use. Abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) exacerbates the problem, leading to ghost fishing and the gradual degradation of plastics into microplastics that persist in the environment for decades.
At UiT, we are joining the global effort to combat marine litter and reduce the spread of harmful plastics in the environment. As part of this mission, we are now in the second year of offering the MSc course FSK-3624 Marine Litter and Arctic Fisheries: Challenges and Solutions. This year, 19 students have enrolled in the 10-ECTS course.
During a two-day beach-cleaning event along Rebbenesøya in Troms County, students collected a significant amount of litter, most of which originated from fisheries and aquaculture. Items such as net sections and fragments from trawls and demersal seines, ropes, and twine cut-offs accounted for the majority of the waste by volume. Some of the debris—buried in sand, soil, and vegetation—was estimated to be decades old. In total, the collected items filled nearly eight large bags (1 m³ each), amounting to a total weight of 880 kilograms.
A couple of days after the beach cleaning, the student group sorted, categorized, and weighed all the items. In the coming days, the students will upload their findings, categorized by item type, to the GRID-Arendal Deep Dive portal, contributing valuable data in the fight against marine plastic pollution.
We thank the crew of R/V Beret Paulsdatter—led by Captain Frode Rønneberg—our technician Ivan Tatone, and Senior Advisor Bo Eide from the Environmental Section of Tromsø Municipality for safe transport, excellent hospitality, and valuable knowledge during the work along our beautiful but vulnerable shorelines.
