Arctic beach cleanup, level: MASTER. That’s the latest independent endeavour of the forScience Foundation – project Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup – in a nutshell. And how about in greater detail?
Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup is an off-shoot of Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup, carried out by the forScience team in the years 2019–2021 and continued at present under the EU-funded project ICEBERG. The two Marine Litter Cleanups have a lot in common. Just like its predecessor, Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup combines down-to-earth practical work for the sake of the Arctic’s natural environment with scientific research into the quantity, quality and distribution of marine litter in the studied area. Just like its predecessor, it focuses on a remote and uninhabited part of Southern Svalbard, which should theoretically be litter-free, but is instead drowning in plastic. And just like its predecessor, it received funding from Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund.
The project received funding from Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund.
If Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup and Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup are so alike, what is it that sets them apart? Their exact geographical focus. And the level of challenge.
Marine litter is human-created waste that has been deliberately or accidentally released in a sea or ocean as a result of land- or sea-based activities. Once there, it can be carried by ocean currents over large distances and washed ashore in both inhabited and uninhabited areas, including in the Arctic, where it degrades natural habitats, negatively affects wildlife and otherwise upsets the region’s delicate ecological balance. Around 85% of all marine litter is broadly-understood plastic.
Twice a year, Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund awards grants to projects contributing to the protection and sustainable promotion of the natural environment and cultural heritage of Svalbard. The money comes from environmental fees included in the price of tickets to Svalbard, hunting and fishing licenses issued to tourists, as well as fines imposed on the basis of Svalbard Environmental Protection Act. Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup is our third project to be funded from this source.
How does Sørkappøya and Sørkapp tie in with Sørkappland, where we carried out Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup and are now busy with project ICEBERG? Sørkappland, which is sometimes called Sørkapp for short, stretches between Hornsund Fjord (with the Polish Polar Station on its northern shore) and the actual Sørkapp, which forms the southernmost tip of Sørkappland and, at the same time, of Spitsbergen at large. Sørkappøya lies still further south and – being an island – is no longer part of Sørkappland.
Sør- or South Spitsbergen National Park is one of twenty protected areas, including three national parks, established in Svalbard in one go on 1 July 1973, when the authorities had finally realized that the natural beauty of Svalbard is in need of protection. Since then, four more national parks have been added to the list. The South Spitsbergen National Park, which covers over 8500 km2 (including Sørkappland, Sørkapp and Sørkappøya) remains the largest area of the sort in all of Svalbard.
Sørkapp Bird Reserve is one of fifteen bird reserves in Svalbard. Established in the year 1973, it includes Sørkappøya and the rest of islands off the southern tip of Sørkappland, covering the total area of about 36 square kilometres. It is strictly prohibited to disturb the many migratory seabirds nesting there, so a total ban is in place on going closer than 300 metres to any of the islands throughout the nesting period, which – according to the official guidelines – lasts from 15 May until 15 August.
Marine litter is human-created waste that has been deliberately or accidentally released in a sea or ocean as a result of land- or sea-based activities. Once there, it can be carried by ocean currents over large distances and washed ashore in both inhabited and uninhabited areas, including in the Arctic, where it degrades natural habitats, negatively affects wildlife and otherwise upsets the region’s delicate ecological balance. Around 85% of all marine litter is broadly-understood plastic.
Twice a year, Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund awards grants to projects contributing to the protection and sustainable promotion of the natural environment and cultural heritage of Svalbard. The money comes from environmental fees included in the price of tickets to Svalbard, hunting and fishing licenses issued to tourists, as well as fines imposed on the basis of Svalbard Environmental Protection Act. Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup is our third project to be funded from this source.
How does Sørkappøya and Sørkapp tie in with Sørkappland, where we carried out Sørkapp Marine Litter Cleanup and are now busy with project ICEBERG? Sørkappland, which is sometimes called Sørkapp for short, stretches between Hornsund Fjord (with the Polish Polar Station on its northern shore) and the actual Sørkapp, which forms the southernmost tip of Sørkappland and, at the same time, of Spitsbergen at large. Sørkappøya lies still further south and – being an island – is no longer part of Sørkappland.
Sør- or South Spitsbergen National Park is one of twenty protected areas, including three national parks, established in Svalbard in one go on 1 July 1973, when the authorities had finally realized that the natural beauty of Svalbard is in need of protection. Since then, four more national parks have been added to the list. The South Spitsbergen National Park, which covers over 8500 km2 (including Sørkappland, Sørkapp and Sørkappøya) remains the largest area of the sort in all of Svalbard.
Sørkapp Bird Reserve is one of fifteen bird reserves in Svalbard. Established in the year 1973, it includes Sørkappøya and the rest of islands off the southern tip of Sørkappland, covering the total area of about 36 square kilometres. It is strictly prohibited to disturb the many migratory seabirds nesting there, so a total ban is in place on going closer than 300 metres to any of the islands throughout the nesting period, which – according to the official guidelines – lasts from 15 May until 15 August.
WHERE WE DO IT
The target area of Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup is, as the name suggests, Sørkappøya. No wonder, however, if it rings no bells. Sørkappøya, or the South Cape Island, is tiny. A bit of land of an undefined shape and a circumference of merely 17 kilometres, located 5 kilometres off the southernmost tip of Spitsbergen, whose name – Sørkapp – translates as the South Cape.
There’s no point looking for Sørkappøya on the list of Svalbard’s must-visit destinations. Why not? Mainly due to its broadly-understood inaccessibility. Sørkappøya lies within the South Spitsbergen National Park (Sør-Spitsbergen NP) and is thus subject to tight restrictions. Besides, along with the neighbouring islets, it forms Sørkapp Bird Reserve, where restrictions are even tighter. The most important of them is the total ban on all traffic in the area throughout the nesting period, which – according to official guidelines – lasts from mid-May to mid-August. But that’s not the end of the story. The island of Sørkappøya is surrounded by sprawling shallows and prone to strong winds and abrupt changes in the weather, which deters passing sailors regardless of the time of year. Even more so as there is usually no one in the area who might come to the rescue should anything go wrong and there is no decent shelter or potable water to be found on the island itself. The nearest place where you may be sure to get help in an emergency is the Polish Polar Station Hornsund. But that’s on the other side of Sørkappland, over 60 kilometres away. Too much for a VHF radio, which is the most common means of communication in the area. Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard, is even further. Some 200 kilometres, as the crow flies. And thus in bad weather, which is to say, pretty often, Sørkappøya might just as well be on the Moon.
Background photo: NASA’s Visible Earth
But although the island’s natural features and the local law keep humans at bay, unwanted signs of human presence are visible on Sørkappøya at every turn. Wherever you look, the coast is strewn with litter. This is because, with ocean currents sweeping around it, Sørkappøya constitutes the first potential accumulation zone for marine litter arriving in the area by sea*. And because the few clean-ups carried out on the island so far have been limited in scope and lacked a research component, there’s a lot to collect in the area, both in terms of marine litter and marine litter data. This is why, despite numerous organisational hurdles and challenges the forScience team will no doubt have to face during fieldwork, the project was conceived with none other but Sørkappøya in mind.
*If you’re on top of forScience litter projects, you may have noticed that the term “first potential accumulation zone” has so far been used to refer to the north-western edge of Sørkappland, located a few dozen kilometres further north. How is that possible? The character and dynamics of the processes responsible for the transport and deposition of marine litter are such that the potential accumulation zones tend to be quite extensive. And even though the impact of ocean currents is likely to be the strongest near Sørkappøya, looking at their distribution one may easily assume that the first accumulation zone for marine litter in Svalbard will be not only Sørkappøya and the nearby islets but the entire western coast of Sørkappland.
Background photo: Anita Horowska, forScience Foundation
What can you see in the above image? The southernmost tip of Spitsbergen and the nearby island of Sørkappøya – the target area of Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup. The arrows in the bottom right corner of the image indicate the location of ocean currents. The red arrow shows the West-Spitsbergen Current, a branch of the Gulf Stream, which carries northwards warm(ish) water from the south. The blue arrows are the cold East-Spitsbergen Current flowing from the Arctic Ocean. What do they have in common? Proximity to Svalbard. And the fact that, apart from water, they also carry litter.
WHY WE DO IT
According to Regulations on Major Conservation Areas and Bird Sanctuaries in Svalbard Continued from 1973, national parks serve to “preserve large, contiguous and substantially untouched natural areas on land and at sea with intact habitats, ecosystems, species, natural ecological processes, landscape, cultural heritage”. It is, therefore, strictly prohibited to pollute protected areas with “substances and objects that may harm animal and plant life or be unsightly”. The above prohibition, however, does nothing to prevent the increasing amounts of marine litter, transported into the area by ocean currents and continually deposited on Svalbard’s coast. In other words, legal regulations alone are not enough to solve the problem. They must be complemented with marine litter clean-ups. And that’s where the forScience team enters the picture.
© Barbara Jóźwiak, forScience Foundation
© Barbara Jóźwiak, forScience Foundation
© Barbara Jóźwiak, forScience Foundation
© Barbara Jóźwiak, forScience Foundation
© Barbara Jóźwiak, forScience Foundation
Sørkappøya Marine Litter Cleanup will reduce the amount of stranded marine litter and, at the same time, its negative impact in the area which is protected by law and, as such, should remain largely free of anthropogenic stressors, including pollution. Additionally, the forScience team will provide quantitative, qualitative and distributional litter data, which will shed new light on the issue of litter pollution in Sørkappøya as well as facilitate the planning and execution of subsequent clean-ups. Because, keeping in mind the appalling state of the island, one clean-up project will hardly be enough.
Project fieldwork will take place in September 2025, so however excited you may be to hear more on the topic, there’s just no way around it. You need to wait. And we need to get back to work, because the expedition to Sørkappøya won’t organize itself. We still have plans to discuss, transport to book, equipment to test, supplies to buy, and formalities to comply with. Anything may happen in Sørkappøya and the forScience team must be ready. So keep your fingers crossed and join the count-down till the start of the Sørkappøya expedition.
And if idle waiting for news is not your thing, use the time to discover the gritty details of marine litter pollution in the Arctic and the role the forScience team has so far played in cleaning it up. We promise it’s not all doom and gloom. There are plenty of clean-up wins to celebrate and a good few fun facts to pick up on the way.