Day 8, Monday, March 2, 2009: South Water Caye, Island and Mangrove Cleanup

Storm Cleanup

The island that we have been staying at got hit by a small storm last night. It was just rain and wind, but on an island with a lot of palm trees and coconuts on them, the wind makes the coconuts and a lot of leaves fall all over the island. So after eating breakfast, we did a beach cleanup. There was a wheel barrel that one person took around and everyone put their picked up coconuts and leaves into and then that person took all of it to a big pile in one of the corners under a big tree. When we started this, I did not think we would make that much of a difference, but after seeing the island after we were done and the pile was huge. I felt really good about being able to help the island look better and I am sure everyone felt as good as me when we were done.

- Liam C.

Mangrove Cleanup

We spent this morning cleaning up the island because there was a storm last night. After, we went down by the mangroves to clean up all the garbage. The mangroves are important for a few different reasons. One of those reasons being that they help with erosion. They also provide protection for the little fish. When the tide is low, the mangroves are still wet, so they can go in there, or they can hide from bigger fish in there.

I went down there expecting to be there maybe half an hour. When we got there, I was shocked to see all the garbage down there. There waere little pieces of styrofoam and plastic everywhere. Alia and I spent about 15 minutes in the same small area (maybe 4 feet or so) just trying to find and pick up all the tiny pieces. When the tide would wash in, we would find plastic food wrappers, zip-lock bags, and more styrofoam pieces coming in. No matter how much we picked up there always seemed to be more a few minutes later. In the mangroves, I found (in a matter of about 5 minutes) some straw wrappers, a lot of bottle caps, a baby bottle cap, and a toothbrush. We were trying to figure out where all of this was coming from. We were suspecting a lot of it was coming from cruise ships. Shortly after that Alia found a (still full) can of beer that stated on the label that it was from a cruise line.

We were down by the mangroves for about an hour to an hour and a half. We got a lot of garbage, but we weren't able to get all of it. The amount of garbage that had washed up still shocks me when I think about it. Its amazing how we can just litter without thinking about it, or how its effecting other things. All the garbage really adds up. The thing that makes it really bad is that the styrofoam and plastic does not disintegrate. It just breaks into tinier and tinier pieces (which is part of why it was so hard to find and pick it all up). All these tiny pieces also hurt the fish, who often mistake them for food.

We need to realize how one thing can effect a lot of other things. We throw the garbage away and once it's gone we stop thinking about it, but we need to realize that it doesn't stop there. This made me realize that we need to be more conscious of what we're doing and how it's effecting everything else around us.

- Lia C.
Today, on the South Water Caye, we cleaned up trash in the mangrove trees (located on the eastern portion of the property). There was a surprising amount of litter caught amongst their gnarled roots. I was surprised that all of that litter originated from this small island - only half a mile long and 50 yards wide - that seemed to be concerned with environmental conservation. When I brought up the issue with Mr. Drossel, I discovered, that in fact, the island was not the place from which the trash originated. The garbage had been trasported from unknown places - by the ocean - and had been washed ashore, only to be entangled within the twisted roots of the mangrove trees. You know thate old saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure?
Well, we didn't find any treasure, but we did find some interesting objects, ranging from a creepy plastic baby doll limb, to a jar of stewed cabbage with an epiration date in 1998. And, yes, we opened it, something I don't really wish to discuss. Most of the trash that we encountered was plastic-based, which meant that it floated easily. Doing this has made me more conscious of where our trash goes if we are not careful of where we dispose of it. Not only must we make an effort to clean up one specific place, but we must try to clean the entire world - collaboratively of course. By cleaning up beaches around the world, we will be able to reduce the risk of trash floating away an damaging ecosystems in locations around the world. This was a very enlightening experience for me, and I hope to participate in things like this in the future.

- Devon L.