BEACHES in Wales and South West England are the dirtiest in the country, a survey reveals. There is more than twice as much debris along these shores than on the North West England coast, and almost twice as much as on the more heavily populated coasts of South East England.

The findings are recorded by the Ross-based Marine Conservation Society (MCS) in its "Beachwatch 2000" report. In its eighth annual survey of beach litter, over 1,300 volunteers picked up 185,000 items along sample beaches totalling 100ks in length.

These ranged from tiny poisonous plastic pellets to a huge fridge door. They amounted to an average of ten bags of rubbish per kilometre, weighing a total of 50kgs per kilometre.

The higher levels found in Wales and the South West could be accounted for by being more directly in the path of the prevailing south westerly winds and currents.

While a third of rubbish is left by holiday makers and other visitors, the rest is washed up. An eighth of the total comes from fishing boats.

The good news reported by MCS is that for the second year running the amounts are down. Conversely, they are alarmed that the small plastic pellets are being found in greater quantities all over the place.

"New scientific evidence has shown that raw industrial pellets can act as magnets for toxic chemicals," they warn. "High concentrations of these chemicals (polychlorinated biphenyls and DDE) are known to damage the immune and reproductive systems in fish, marine animals and birds.

"The strong resemblance of these pellets to their natural foodstuffs, such as fish eggs and tiny animals, leads to mistaken ingestion."

The Society, the UK's only charity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its wildlife, was launched in 1983. It comes to be located in Ross-on-Wye because its first worker, Bob Earl, lived there.