Dumping of Bible verse bottles seemingly stops

An appeal aimed at stopping the large scale dumping of plastic bottles containing Bible verses in the River Bann appears to have worked.

In the past few years, thousands of bottles with religious messages tucked inside had been thrown into the water, ending up in the reed beds, mud and paths alongside the river in Coleraine.

Earlier this year, an environmental group called Sea2it appealed publicly to whoever was behind the bottles to cease their activities – and it seems they have heeded that message.

“There are still some of the older bottles in the river system and caught in the reed beds but there’s definitely a substantial decrease in any new bottles,” said Andrew Bratton from Sea2it.

“In fact, I don’t think any of us have lifted out fresh bottles in the past two months. We can tell by the condition of bottles that they’re older and the messages are faded.

“I think the message we put out earlier in the springtime has hit home and the people behind this have decided that it’s not a good idea.”

When BBC News NI visited the site in January, the bottles were noticeable with a quick glance of the reed beds.

We picked up dozens of them, ranging from some looking fairly new to others which appeared many years old.

They had all been meticulously cleaned and dried, before the Bible messages were rolled up, placed inside and the top screwed on tightly, and thrown into the river.

There were thousands of them, suggesting someone had put a lot of time and effort into this.

However, a big part of the mystery remains unsolved.

“We still don’t know who was doing this,” said Andrew Bratton.

“No specific groups or individuals came forward. But whoever it was, we would like to thank them for stopping.”

The story of the bottles caused a stir in the town when it initially emerged.

“We had hundreds of messages on our Facebook page,” he said.

“Some in support, some focusing on what they felt was us trying to lambast religious groups.

“But we stressed throughout this was not about us being anti-religious, it just wasn’t the appropriate way to share that message in 2024.

“It was never about the substance of the message, but it was about how it was being delivered.”

But despite this issue appearing to have been solved, other sources of pollution continue to plague the river.

Last week, volunteers removed 18 shopping trollies, two farm gates and a scooter, among other things, from the water.

Some volunteer river clean-up events have been postponed as, similar to some other waterways in Northern Ireland, blue-green algae has emerged.

“Blue-green algae is a huge challenge for us,” Mr Bratton said.

“It means we can’t take groups out onto the river, it’s too much of a risk to have people in that environment.”