To pay tribute to one of the characters from the Harry Potter saga, fans go to the beach where his death scene was filmed and leave socks or colorful pebbles there, polluting the environment.

In Wales, tourism by Harry Potter fans is polluting the protected beach of Freshwater West, a natural site that served as the backdrop for a famous scene in the latest installment of the British saga. The Deathly HallowsSince then, it has become a place of pilgrimage for fans of the young wizard. “Potterhead”as they say in English, have even erected a monument there in honor of Dobby, one of the main characters of the story. They leave socks and all kinds of other junk there, which pollute the habitat of grey seals, porpoises and seabirds.

Everything begins in the second opus, The Chamber of Secretswhen Harry meets Dobby, who introduces himself as “the house elf”The connection with this Welsh beach of Freshwater West is explained by Ludovic, an absolute fan of the saga: “This is where Dobby died and was buried by his friends Ron and Hermione.”.

“It’s part of a Harry Potter pilgrimage, like the grave of a rock star. You want to leave a sock there. I’ve seen people leave colorful pebbles there, little pieces of us.”Socks have great symbolic power in the Harry Potter universe. House elves are enslaved and in order to free them, you have to give them this piece of clothing.

The problem is that these socks and the painting of the pebbles cause pollution, says Lloyd Nelmes. The manager of Sea Trust Wales, a local conservation association, has nothing against the young magician: “Absolutely not, we love Harry and Dobby and it’s great that this brings tourists to this beach. But we would like the items on Dobby’s grave to be made of biodegradable materials such as wood or paper to avoid contamination of the plankton with microplastics.”.

Therefore, on his next pilgrimage, Ludovic promises to leave only dried flowers and a shell on Dobby’s grave.