Did you know that plastic gas been found in 62% of sea birds and 100% of all sea turtles. A sad but true fact I’m afraid.
According to the Ocean Conservancy, every year, 8 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that currently circulate our marine environments. This is through plastic bags and straws or large amounts of plastic waste entering the water system from large city areas. That is equivalent to dumping a garbage truck full of plastic into the ocean every minute of every day for an entire year. Now, get your head around that!
That enormous amount of plastic will clearly have a huge effect on the marine ecosystem so what are we going to about it?
On September 16th the Ocean Conservancy is spearheading a global effort to tackle this problem of plastic of our oceans with an international coastal clean up day. Volunteers around the world will be cleaning up their local beaches with organized clean ups and efforts. In addition to that, the Ocean Conservancy is asking all participants to submit their collected trash data as a citizen science project so that all of the information on the trash that is collected can be used to For more than 30 years, Ocean Conservancy has brought together more than 12 million volunteers from 153 countries to participate in these clean ups in which time volunteers have picked up more than 220 million pounds of trash from the world’s beaches.
With plastic production continually increasing around the world we have to stop it from reaching the ocean. By implementing waste collection and recycling globally we can not only address the issue of ocean plastic pollution, but can also work to improve public health.
So where will you be on September 16th? I am hoping with us, meeting at the Quepos sign on the edge of town, where we will then head across to the Cocal and take part in a beach cleanup throughout the morning. We are teaming up with @anonymous_mermaids_mermen who run fantastic beach clean ups every month in the local area. Once collected we will be taking part in the Ocean conservancy citizen science project and submitting our data to be part of the solution.
So, what do you need to know?
Meet at the Quepos sign by the Quepos Bridge at 8am, we have a boat organized to take us to Cocal at 8:10am. Please bring your own trash bags and gloves. Also personal water to stay hydrated. We will be cleaning the beach area in Cocal, after the cleanup, please use the Cocal ferry to make your own way back to Quepos. See you on Saturday the 16th, Let’s be part of the solution!