Coral-Cay-Crew-and-members-of-the-community-after-the-clean-up
Nov. 23, Saturday, saw the collaboration of Coral Cay Conservation with local residents coming together to clean up the Bunkum Bay area from the litter problem that has been plaguing this beach for some time. It was a great morning for all involved. The beach, which was strewn with a variety of plastic trash, was cleaned quickly and the team of volunteers moved quickly on to cleaning the river area.
Ben Cresswell, Field Base Manager for Coral Cay Montserrat, based in Old Towne, said: “It is great to be able to get involved at Bunkum Bay and help clean up one of Montserrat’s most picturesque beaches”.
When asked about the kinds of item polluting the beach he said:
“It’s the kind of things you might imagine: plastic bottles and bags, old shoes, egg boxes, discarded fishing gear and similar items. One of the main threats to the marine environment is Styrofoam or polystyrene packaging, used for take-out food, drink and other domestic purposes. It breaks down extremely slowly and I’m not sure people realize how damaging it is for our marine and land environments. It is a petroleum based product and even its manufacture can have detrimental effects on the environment.”
Polystyrene-fragments-from-a-2sq-ft-area-of-beach.
Gemma Galbraith, Project Scientist for Coral Cay added: “Polystyrene is one of the major contributors to urban litter and marine pollution around the globe. While it is great to be able to have a team of people come help clean up the beach today, what we need is for people to be more considered in their use of this material in the first place. Paper and cardboard alternatives for eating utensils are a great option as they can at least biodegrade back into the environment. But if you have to use these products whilst at the beach or away from home, please make sure you take your trash home and dispose of it properly.”
A great deal of trash was taken from the beach – enough to fill an entire dumpster kindly provided by Billy from Lookout.
Coral Cay Conservation is an internationally renowned and accredited conservation specialist dedicated to providing the resources to help protect coral reefs and tropical rainforests throughout the developing world. Need to know more? Please go to: www.coralcay.org/about-us.
