'Unholy' row: Environmental group appeal after 1,000s of 'Bible messages in plastic bottles' dumped in Northern Ireland river

In the past year alone Sea2it, a Coleraine-based not-for-profit environmental firm, has collected a shocking 670 bottles with ‘a fresh 2024 batch’ having been released into the local river over the new year.

Dedicated to conserving the marine and freshwater coastal environments of Northern Ireland and Ireland, Sea2it also called on Coleraine churches for information and to ‘help with the clean up’.

The group Sea2it posted on social media: “Message in a bottle by the 1000s. Would any of the Coleraine churches know who is dumping bible messages in plastic bottles into the River Bann at Coleraine on this industrial scale? Whatever your beliefs or reason you have to spread the word of God, this act is littering our beautiful river.

"Sea2it volunteers have been removing these bottles for years now and collected a shocking 670 of these bottles with messages in them in 2023. Unfortunately, again a fresh 2024 batch seems to have been released into the river over the new year.

"They are always downstream of the Old Town Bridge so the person(s) must be dumping them into the river around Dunnes Stores, the foot Bridge or Waterside area. Please can you stop doing this as it’s polluting our river and tying up 100s of hours of our volunteer time removing them when we could be tackling other immediate impacts on the river.

“If any local church group wishes to help with a clean up of our local River and address this blight please contact us [email protected].”

Causeway Coast and Glens Council said it was unaware of “this littering in the River Bann”, however added: "We would advise that anyone identified as having committed littering or illegal dumping offences will be dealt with by way of a fixed penalty notice of £200 or prosecution in the Magistrates Court, where the maximum fine on conviction is £2,500.”

But the Sea2it post has caused division between the local community with some criticising the act as awful, shocking and disgusting, with some urging the group to report it to PSNI as ‘a wildlife crime’.

However one online comment replied: "The author of this post should be ashamed of what's being insinuated. Absolutely repugnant to suggest that since it's religions doing - someone from the religious community ought to come and help us clean it up.”

Agreeing, another said: “Just out of a matter of interest, I'd be keen to know just how many alcoholic bottles and cans are found up and down the river? I'm presuming it's many many more than your haul of messages in bottles? In which case I'd also expect there to be a separate post, tagging all premises that sell alcohol to see if they too would be willing to come down and give a hand in clearing up the mess? Or indeed those that consume alcohol. Any takers? After all there surely needs to be a level playing field in the highlighting of any particular group that contributes to littering.

“What's happened here is simply ill-judged on the part of the individual/s distributing the tracts. They obviously meant no harm in what they were attempting to do. From their perspective (whether you agree or not) their motives were well intended. I'm sure, now that this post has been highlighted, they've been given food for thought, and will now reconsider their approach in their distribution of their tracts.

“Let's all be honest. We've all attributed to littering in some capacity or another, and truth be told, if most are honest with themselves, they've jumped on the bandwagon to comment their "disgust" all because something has happened in the name of religion, to which the majority of society are nowadays completely intolerant to. Again what's happened here is something simply il-judged, nothing more, nothing less, and certainly something not worth demonizing the entire Christian community over, as Sea2it have attempted to do.”

In response, it was posted: “Baffles me anyone would think this is a wise move to get more people to learn about god. It must also be more than one person with the volume of bottles.”

Agreeing, another posted: “What an absolute disgrace... Polluting God's creation, if nothing else, and harming wildlife... I doubt very much that Jesus would approve!”