7- Beach Stuff and Bag the Bruck

Hello all.

I am watching Blue Planet II and there is a clown fish playing with an old plastic bottle. It got me thinking of Bag the Bruck and the beaches here in Falkland Islands. This term my class will be learning about natural habitats and we will be talking about the effect of pollution and in particular plastic on the environment and the oceans.

The beaches here are quite different to home. They tend to vary depending on their location and the tides. Some beaches are pristine and you see no human waste whatsoever. Other beaches particularly those around towns and settlements can be quite messy just like we see at home.

I thought I would show you some of the items which I have found in the hills and on the beaches here, especially things that we would not find at home. I have picked up lots of sea glass and lots of driftwood. I do not know if that is because there is more of it here or because people are less interested in collecting it than they are in Orkney.

Have a great week!

This is a whale bone which my friend was kind enough to give me.

I think this is a penguin skull from a Gentoo penguin.

There are shells here but they tend to be quite small.

Another whale bone!

These bullets come from the hills around the town. Some are blank practice rounds but some have been fired and those ones probably date from the war 35 years ago.

There is a lot of sea glass here and a lot of it has writing on it.

I always pick up the pieces that say Scotland. Presumably these are whiskey bottles.

I like to pick up lots of driftwood, both big and small.

This little fishing weight caught my interest. There is often waste plastic on beaches, just like we see on our beaches at home. 

There is lots of very old black glass on beaches here. This bottle will be well over 100 years old.

These bullets probably come from the war 35 years ago. There are lots of these in the hills just a ten minute walk from my house.

I think this is the remains of an Argentine helmet from the war. I found it on a beach. I took it home because I didn't think it would last too much longer getting smashed up by the waves.