Great Winter Nurdle Hunt on the Isle of Wight

THE Great Winter Nurdle Hunt takes place on Friday, and a team will be scouring an Isle of Wight beach to track down the tiny plastic pellets found in their millions around the coastline.
Nurdles — which are the size of a lentil — are often spilled accidentally when being transported to factories where they are melted down and used to form plastic items such as bins and bottles.
Marine animals can swallow them as they look similar to fish eggs, and the pellets get trapped in the stomach.
The pellets can also release toxins into the water.
A team will be meeting at the Waterfront Inn in *Shanklin on Friday from 9.30am, before heading out to hunt for nurdles.
Sarah Marshall, a member of the Marine Conservation Society and founder of Message in a Bottle, an online store offering products that help people reduce their use of plastic, has already collected nurdles from Compton beach and sent them to the International Pellet Watch in Japan for toxin analysis.
Sarah is planning to collect more nurdles from Shanklin beach as part of the Great Winter Nurdle Hunt, but more volunteers are needed on other beaches around the Isle of Wight.
The nurdles don't necessarily have to be collected, hunters can simply identify hotspots and report back.