Confronting the Arctic’s pollution problems

Norway’s Lofoten archipelago is characterized by jagged snow-capped peaks, white sand beaches and a relatively mild microclimate for such northerly attitudes. This is thanks to the Gulf Stream, which carries warm ocean waters to the islands. But this crucial ocean current also brings a tide of plastic pollution that is washing up on the remote Arctic shore. Some of this marine litter travels all the way from Europe—from bottle caps to buckets and bags.

Situated off the west coast of Nordland Province in northern Norway, roughly 60 miles (100km) inside the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten archipelago is made up of seven main islands that have become a popular destination for cold water surf enthusiasts. Beaches like Flakstad and Unstad offer world class Atlantic breaks, but these beaches are becoming repositories for all sorts of marine litter, the vast majority of which is made of plastic.

While we often associate marine plastic pollution with consumer goods, a lot of the litter in the Arctic actually comes from fisheries. This can include monofilament nylon fishing nets, rope, traps and pots as well as packaging and containers. Plastic garbage that is left on beaches and in shallow waters degrades over time into microplastics, due to heat and UV light, further polluting the ecosystem. These microplastics have been found in record concentrations in Arctic sea ice, as well as on the seabed and throughout Arctic waters.

Industrial nets are hung out to dry at the dock in Svolvær Harbor, Lofoten. The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates that up to 10% of marine plastics come from lost or abandoned fishing gear. These “ghost nets” drift on tides and currents and can get stuck on the seabed, snaring sea creatures large and small, from tiny fish to mighty humpback whales. Norwegian environmental consultancy SALT is working with fishers to make it easy for them to dispose of unwanted fishing gear at ports and harbors so it can be recycled.

Norway has initiated a large-scale cleanup program, which aims to remove 40% of marine litter from Norway’s coastline by the end of 2023. While coastal cleanups can’t stem the flow of plastic, they can reduce the impact of waste on marine ecosystems by removing larger items before they break up into smaller pieces that can be ingested by marine animals and sea birds.  

We need to change our relationship with plastic if we’re to stop it from polluting ocean ecosystems around the world. As a project manager with SALT, Carl Höjman is able to have a real-world impact on the marine litter he finds on the Lofoten beaches he surfs. As an environmental advocate and Goodwill Ambassador for the SEA BEYOND project, Valentina Gottlieb educates younger generations about the fragility of marine ecosystems, how these are affected by plastic pollution, and the importance of preserving them. The Prada Re-Nylon Collection is made using regenerated nylon sourced from waste materials, including ghost nets.

Not all pollution is physical. In the maze of fjords and channels that separate Lofoten from mainland Norway, another type of pollution is disrupting marine ecosystems—noise. Sound travels differently underwater, producing powerful waves of pressure that can travel much farther than they do through the air. Sea creatures use sound in a variety of ways. But we humans are creating a cacophony that is disrupting natural behaviors in ways that can often be fatal.

Marine biologist Heike Vester has been studying the seas around Bodø in northern Norway since 2005. She has a long-held interest in the acoustic environment underwater and the many ways in which marine animals use sound—to communicate with each other, navigate, find food, defend territory and reproduce. But listening to the underwater environment showed her an entirely different category of noise created by humans and our machinery out at sea.

Marine biologist, Heike Vester, lowers a hydrophone into the waters of a fjord near the small town of Bodø in Northern Norway. Vester runs Ocean Sounds, a non-profit that researches the impact of noise pollution on marine creatures, in particular on cetaceans. The hydrophone lets her record the world of sound that exists underwater—and the noises of human machinery that are disrupting it. Hydrophones match the acoustic impedance of water, as sound waves travel more than four times faster underwater than they do through the air.

SEA BEYONDer and Goodwill Ambassador Valentina Gottlieb (left) listens to the marine environment in a fjord in North Norway as Heike Vester explains what generates each distinct sound—from the clicking of crustaceans to the whistles, squeaks and songs of dolphins and whales. What can also be heard, however, is the sound of boat engines—now ubiquitous in most coastal regions of our planet as well as along the shipping routes that crisscross our seas and ocean.

It’s not just boat engines making noise in underwater ecosystems, but other forms of human industry, too. Seismic surveys searching for oil and gas can have a devastating impact on many sea creatures, as they direct powerful sonic blasts into the sea bed as often as every 10 seconds. These underwater “explosions” can rupture the organs of sea creatures, killing them, or frighten whales into surfacing too quickly and getting the bends. Studies have also shown that plankton in the vicinity of the blasts die off.

At her lab in Bodø, Heike Vester reviews one of her hydrophone recordings, taken during a recent trip to the nearby Vest Fjord. A variety of whale species visit the herring-rich waters around Bodø and the nearby Lofoten archipelago during their migrations. Vester’s area of study centers on the social behavior of cetaceans and the role that bioacoustics play. However, over the last decade in particular, she has noticed a significant uptick in anthropogenic noise in the area, from cruise ships to military vessels and seismic surveys.

One of Heike Vester’s students reconstructs a porpoise skeleton at her lab in Bodø. Harbor porpoises are present year-round in the waters of Vest Fjord, but like other cetaceans, they’re impacted by the increase in boat traffic, particularly tourist boats. According to Vester, cetaceans won’t feed when they hear boat engines nearby—yet many of the whale watching boats continue to run their engines even when they aren’t moving. Her hope is that there can be greater awareness among tour operators of the potential impact of their activities in order to create less disturbance to the animals’ natural behaviors.

Researchers like Vester and her students are sounding the alarm on underwater noise pollution—and the fact that there are solutions that will allow us to reduce the impact of anthropogenic noises on marine ecosystems. New technologies like AI algorithms are capable of generating detailed maps that show how engine noise disperses underwater, allowing us to design less disruptive shipping routes. It is also possible to build quieter engines—indeed the world’s first electric cargo ship took to the seas in November 2024—suggesting there is hope that humans can be better, less noisy neighbors to the animals with which we share our planet.

Find out more about how understanding our ocean can be the very thing to help save it; and more about Prada Group’s work with UNESCO-IOC here.