Along the coast of Wales, scores of old fishing and leisure boats lie abandoned and rotting. In the coming years, experts fear a wave of abandonments as boat owners baulk at high disposal costs that can run to £3,000 for larger vessels. This coastal dumping ground has the potential to devastate marine life as decaying boats leak oil, resins and fibreglass shards into the Irish Sea.

According to marine biologist Dr Corina Ciocan, many owners of pensionable boats try to sell them so they become someone else’s problem. The Brighton University lecturer has been investigating the issue for years and she believes the problem will only grow as early fibreglass-hulled boats from the 1960s and 1970s come to the end of their lives.

Of particular concern are fibreglass fibres that float from disintegrating hulls in their millions and embed themselves in marine organisms. Peeling paint from boats leaves estuary sediments with high concentrations of copper, zinc and lead. Mercury-based compounds, used as antifouling agents, is another neurotoxin danger. Neither are boats solely to blame. Fibreglass paddleboards and surfboards cannot be recycled.

No one is quite sure how many end-of-life boats litter the Welsh coast. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has been delving into the issue for two years. To better understand the nature and scale of the problem, it is launching a three-year Welsh-Government-funded initiative this autumn.

The Nature Network Marine Litter project will work with partners in Wales and England to develop a protocol for end-of-life boats. Dawn Beech, senior advisor at NRW said: “We are working with partners to increase awareness within the boating community of the financial and environmental impacts of flytipping boats. We are also working to influence end-of-life solutions, as well as tackling existing hotspots.“

As no registration is needed for leisure boats, unlike cars, they are often dumped once the cost of disposal exceeds their resale value. Scuttling them at sea was a traditional solution and there are fears this could increase exponentially, creating artificial reefs that pose a microplastic threat to marine life.

Where boats are discarded, it becomes a problem for someone else. NRW’s Dawn Beech said: “The responsibility for disposal of a boat lies with its owner, but where boats are abandoned or fly-tipped it can become an issue for landowners, often the local authorities, or port and harbour authorities where an abandoned boat has become a risk to safe navigation.”

NRW’s Nature Network Marine Litter project will examine all these issues, with Milford Haven and the Dee estuary under particular scrutiny. Mandatory disposal via boatyards is a possibility. It’s a prospect that Mr Martin-Jones believes is already focusing the minds of owners of old boats that have passed their sail-by dates.

The full news story in the Daily Post can be read here.