Around six billion tonnes of sand is dredged from the world's oceans every year, a new report says.

Around six billion tonnes of sand is dredged from the world’s oceans every year, a new report says.

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    1 year ago

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    Around six billion tonnes of sand is dredged from the world’s oceans every year, endangering marine life and coastal communities, the UN says.

    Sand is the most exploited natural resource in the world after water and is used to produce concrete and glass.

    The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said some vessels were acting as vacuum cleaners, dredging both sand and micro-organisms that fish feed on.

    “The scale of environmental impacts of shallow sea mining activities and dredging is alarming,” said Pascal Peduzzi, who heads UNEP’s analytics centre GRID-Geneva.

    Large vessels were “basically sterilising the bottom of the sea by extracting sand and crunching all the microorganisms that are feeding fish”, Mr Peduzzi said.

    The UNEP recommended that sand dredging should also be banned from beaches to protect coastal resilience and economies.

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