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Bible verses inside plastic bottles are being dumped into the River Bann in Coleraine on an "industrial scale", an environmental group has said.

The Sea2It organisation launched an appeal on social media to try and identify those responsible.

The organisation, a not-for-profit community interest company dedicated to protecting the marine environment, said it has been removing the bottles from the Bann "for years".

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In an appeal posted on social media, a spokesperson for Sea2It asked: 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."

The appeal continues: "Sea2it volunteers have been remove 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 its pollute our River and tying up 100's of hours of our volunteer time removing them- when we could be tackling other immediate issues which are impacting on the River."

The organisation also appealed to local Churches to help out with a river clean-up, saying: "If any local church group wishes to help with a clean up of our local River and address this blight please contact us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it."

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