I must thank journalist Knut-Sverre Horn, a writer and photographer for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) and 2023 winner of the title Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the urban wildlife category of London’s Natural History Museum contest. His May article in The Norwegian Broadcast focuses on work being done in Laksefjord (Salmon fjord) at the top of Norway, in the east of Finnmark, facing north towards the Barents Sea. The mighty Laksefjord is relatively deep, with some islets and skerries (reefs). Especially in the inner part, there is bustling birdlife and important nesting areas. The rich fjord has, of course, attracted people for time immemorial. 

In the article, I read that a cleaning team led by Rune Muladal, General Manager of Naturtjenester i Nord AS (an environmental service company) recently started collecting the plastic that Muladal first noticed in the 90s. “We saw that there was a lot of plastic in the fjord, but we didn't think much about it at the time. It was part of the coastline. A lot of plastic on the shore was quite common.” As a biologist, he gained a new perspective on the matter when he found plastic in the stomachs of seabirds, plastic in bottom samples from the sea, and plastic floating in rivers. “It has been an eye-opener in recent years!” Muladal has had a special relationship with the Laksefjord ever since he visited the area for the first time. In 2021, an opportunity opened to do something for the natural pearl. Then money was announced to clean up waste in the sea. “I had decided that the year I turned 50 would be dedicated to Laksefjorden. So, then I celebrated both my 50th birthday and 17 May out in the fjord with my colleagues, local community groups - and the waste.”

“It was calculated that there would be somewhere between 12 and 16 tons of plastic in the entire Laksefjorden,” says Muladal. The result after one summer (3,500 working hours) of clearing? 50 tons of waste! “It is significantly more than expected,” according to Muladal. “I would say that we have taken away up to half of the waste. We have cleaned a quarter of the fjord but have taken the most polluted areas.” The big question: Where does it come from, the huge amounts of plastic that reach our coast? Rune Muladal and his team found some answers last year. Much of what drifts onto the coast comes from the fisheries. “When we have cleaned a beach and filled 14 large sacks, at least 10 of them are fisheries related. Then we have four which are bottles and household waste, industrial and building materials – there’s an incredible number of shoes. We have been wondering about that a lot. Where do all those shoes come from?” 

They also found that strong ocean currents had brought one piece more than 5,000 kilometers, or 3,106 miles, proof that garbage from half the globe will end up in this fjord all the way to north Norway. An ink cartridge from HP has a special history. It came from a freighter that sank off the east coast of the USA, south of Nova Scotia, in January 2014. The production number has allowed researchers to follow the cartridge’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Who knows, maybe it has spun an extra round in the sea with the equatorial current before it hit the North Atlantic route to Norway, Finnmark and Laksefjorden. It was found there nine years after the sinking, thanks to patriotic people cleaning our beaches. More have opened their eyes. From this year forward, several beaches from Hvaler island in the south to Varanger in the north will be monitored as part of an extensive international collaboration. 

Another initiative I would like to honor is the project “UTÅLMODIG” (Impatient) which is also the name of a 39” catamaran sailing along the Norwegian coast from the south all the way to the north for six months in 2024. The initiative takers are two friends of many of us from their time in D.C., Camilla Bache-Mathiesen and her husband André Mundal. I met Camilla for the first time as an intern at the Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. and her husband was a diplomat at the Norwegian Embassy. Many years later, I read that Camilla is actively fighting for our environment and André is actively working for the green movement as he also writes his new book “De flinkeste slutter” (The best quit). Camilla is the founder and leader of the environmental organization Grønnere Sammen (Greener Together) and project manager for the project “Utålmodig.” She is passionate about a more sustainable future and has worked for many years to increase knowledge and activate people to work for the climate and the environment. André is a former consultant, diplomat and officer in the Norwegian Armed Forces. He has specialized in the subject of "change and social development” and is particularly concerned that Norway must stand further in the shoes of the green shift. André has a good portion of impatience for climate and the environment. Andre is also the Captain onboard Utålmodig. (www.utaalmodig.com)

In his New Year’s speech, Norwegian King Harald V asked all of us to be more impassioned about the climate and environment. As an answer to the King’s request, these two entrepreneurs and their organization Greener Together launched an impatient movement to contribute to a faster green transition. They will make stops and meet with people along the coast, give speeches and visit green projects in local communities. We wish them safe sailing and successful meetings with many people and institutions with clear goals.

An underwater tunnel is being built north of Stavanger to south of Haugesund. It is 26.7 kilometers (16.7 miles) long and will be the world's longest undersea tunnel. It will also be the world's deepest, with a road almost 400 meters (0.3 miles) below sea level. Rogfast is the name of this huge project. When the tunnels are blasted, pink plastic clips are used to connect wires to the dynamite. After the explosions, the plastic clips -- together with the blasted rock -- are transported out of the tunnels in a truck. Then everything is dumped on the seabed. It has been over six years since the first bursts of dynamite went off, and now the plastic clips have spread far with the ocean currents. People have reported finding these plastic clips 140 kilometers (87 miles) away from undersea tunnel project, although The Norwegian Road administration is unsure whether all the plastic remains found in Western Norway come from the Rogfast project. 

This brings me to my third example of people engaged in environmental action -- Arve Jåtun, Project Manager for marine litter for Jæren Friluftsråd, a local organization for the environment close to Stavanger. Jåtun says they have picked up around 50 of these plastic clips along the Jærkysten and the fjords in Ryfylke. “The negative is that this is plastic material. It is not sustainable to have plastic in nature,” he says. The Road Administration has introduced cleaning actions which are conducted once a month in the winter and twice a month in the summer. The Road Administration will spend NOK 1 million ($100,000) this year on finding the pieces of plastic. They will search in the nearby areas of the tunnel. 

I think these three examples can give you a sense of the size of the challenges we are facing. Even if we have reasons to be pessimistic about pollution of our waters, it gives us hope to have individuals taking positive actions. They deserve to be recognized for the time and effort they expend to make a difference in our environment and a brighter future for all of us.

I wish you all a great summer and please, pick up trash along your way. Each of us can make a little progress and inspire others to do the same.