COX’S BAZAR BEACH Marine litter continues floating ashore

Waves of marine litter, mostly plastic waste, have continued to float ashore onto the Cox’s Bazar beach filling one of the longest sea beaches of the world with huge quantities of wastes.

Local people said that several times in the last 12 days same types of waste continued floating ashore in a significant amount while the authorities failed to identify the source of the waste.

It was the first time such a large volume of plastic has washed onto the 120-kilometre beach along the Bay of Bengal.

HM Nazrul Islam, member secretary of Cox’s Bazar Nagorik Andolan and also coordinator of Social Activities Forum Cox’s Bazar, a platform of 500 volunteers of 11 green organisations that had cleaned the shore, said that they rescued over five sea snakes entangled in waste fishing nets.

‘Over 100 tonnes of waste littered the 12-km-long beach, from Naziratec to Himchori,’ he said.

After the beach was overrun with wastes that included plastic bottles, plastic ropes, packets, fishing nets and buoys, the local administration formed a probe committee which is yet to unveil the report.

Member secretary of the committee and also deputy director of the Department of Environment Sk Md Nazmul Huda on Friday told New Age that they were concerned about marine environment as suddenly a huge quantity of marine litter came ashore and the beach continued to receive such debris, though in small scale.

‘We are investigating the source of the wastes, but are yet to find it,’ he said.

Examining the types of wastes that came ashore, the probe body is suspecting that the wastes were both from domestic and foreign sources, he added.

On July 11, green activists found at least 20 Olive Ridley turtles, a vulnerable species, dead on the beach and over 500 others were rescued after getting entangled in plastic wastes washed ashore.

Mir Kashem, scientific officer of the Bangladesh Oceanographic Research Institute, said that no abnormal situation or natural disaster was reported in the Bay of Bengal at the time when the huge waste washed upon the shores.

Kashem, who studies environmental oceanography, suspected that the wastes were dumped by Myanmar in the sea and due to wind direction, wave, bottom topography, tide, slope and other favourable physical condition floated them towards the beach.

‘The same incident may repeat in future if dumping continues,’ he said.

Wildlife Conservation Society Bangladesh recorded 197 cetacean (the scientific grouping of dolphins, porpoises and whales) mortalities of seven different cetacean species since February 2007.

WCS’s country director Md Zahangir Alom said that among the known cases of 87 mortalities, 11 per cent were from current jal (monofilament gill nets), 70 per cent from fash or chandi jal (multifilament gill nets), 6 per cent from vessel collisions and 9 per cent reported as killed by people.

At least 17 dolphins were found dead in Cox’s Bazar beach, Saint Martin’s Island, Teknaf and Inani in the last 10 months till June, said ANM Moazzem Hossain, chairman Save the Nature of Bangladesh.

He said that activists found rare types of waste and fossils in the litter that had recently floated ashore and the incident required vast research on this serous environmental issue.

Green activists described it as risk for marine ecology and asked the government to take immediate steps.

HM Nazrul Islam suspected that the waste came through bordering River Naf where either by Bangladeshis or Myanmar people dumped such waste matters.

‘Local fishermen do not use waste fishing nets found on the beach,’ he said.

Olive Ridleys are the most abundant of all sea turtles around the world but their numbers have been in decline, and the species is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List.

Nazrul said that most of the turtles which were rescued sustained injuries and weighed over 15 kg and more.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net