Plastics clean-up in epic rowing challenge
Rowers across Scotland have celebrated the end of an epic RowAround bid promoting the country’s coast and waters.
Saturday October 30 marked the end of the coastal voyage that has involved more than 1,200 rowers, including many from Argyll, covering 750 miles.
Organiser Sue Fenton of Seil Island rowed 120 of those miles with eight different crews on eight separate legs on the way round and described her personal highlight as going through the Dorus Mor at the end of Loch Craignish with its extreme whirlpools.
Her fellow rowers came from clubs in Seil, Loch Awe and Mull, and as far apart as Orkney in the north, Annan in the south, Barra in the west and Dunbar in the East.
As part of the challenge, the open-top boats have been trawling for micro-plastics.
‘It’s the first time a small boat has done trawls of this kind for micro-plastics round Scotland,’ said Sue who is from
Seil Coastal Rowing Club. ‘We’ve done 54 of them all together and the findings will eventually be written up in a paper we hope will benefit the planet and our seas in some way. The information it will give is a kind of legacy from the RowAround.’
The last of the sample bottles were handed over to Sue on Sunday October 31 to add to the others she has been storing in her shed at home ready to be handed over to researchers for analysis at SAMS (The Scottish Association for Marine Science) on the outskirts of Oban.
The ambitious challenge that has been two and a half years in the making was organised to mark the 10th anniversary of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association – although this is now the 11th anniversary because Covid pulled the plug on the RowAround in 2020.
To get it done, the attempt had to be compressed into a shorter space of time but it has been worth all the muscle-power put into it, said Sue who played a key part in its planning.
‘Everybody involved has done a great job. We’ve had 1,282 rowers from 64 clubs who have covered 750 miles. People have been rowing right up until the last minute.’
RowAround Scotland 2021 was supported by the Year of Coasts and Waters 20/21, co-ordinated by Event Scotland; the project is also supported by NatureScot, through Plunge In! The Coasts and Waters Community Fund.
On Saturday members of the clubs who were at the start of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association 11 years ago rowed along Loch Tummel to the sailing club where they were met with cheers and handed over the RowAround relay batons to members of this year’s new clubs.