SGU Gazette

Choose a Story Position:	Story 2
Is this Story Active?	No
Category:	Events
Date:	12/05/2011
Title:	ECO Spearheads International Coastal Cleanup
By Line
Short Story This year, members of Education, Conservation and Outreach (ECO), a St. George’s University student group, spearheaded the International Coastal Cleanup initiative for Grenada. The group, which is made up mostly of students from SGU’s Marine and Wildlife Class, focused on raising awareness on environmental issues. With the help of local groups and schools the team mounted a campaign against land and marine litter during September and October. The group kicked off the campaign with an underwater cleanup of Grand Anse Beach. Local divers, students and some tourists pitched in to help and removed eight large bags of debris from the water in under one hour. Following the launch, members of another SGU student group, Exotic Wildlife Society (EWS) joined the efforts with a cleanup of Paradise Beach a few miles away from the dove sanctuary in Mt. Hartman and collected approximately twenty five bags of debris. ECO continued its efforts with a cleanup of the SGU campus on October 14. The largest event was held on October 22^ndwhen ECO invited schools, student groups and local organisations to join them in organizing cleanups nation-wide. Several schools and groups responded to their call including Bishop’s College, whose students cleaned in Carriacou, Petite Martinique Roman Catholic Primary School who cleaned a location in that island, the Leo Club in Calliste Bay, Specto Group in Sauteurs, and the St. Mark’s Coast Guard in their parish. ECO also received significant assistance from Dive Grenada and Aquanauts for two underwater cleanups, at Dragon Bay and the Carenage respectively. The two companies were very kind in supplying the students with diving equipment for their underwater cleanups.
Full Story ECO members Leyana Romain and Andre Joseph-Witzig explained that although the team felt that their efforts were fruitful, they also felt that they have barely scratched the surface and that there is much more work to be done cleaning up the environment and raising awareness. They are looking forward to hosting other International Coastal Cleanups and plan to keep working towards fostering a healthy physical environment in Grenada. The International Coastal Cleanup, which is organized by Ocean Conservancy, has been running for the past 26 years. Every year during the months of September and October over 150 countries participate in national cleanups as part of this initiative. It is one of the world’s largest volunteer efforts for marine health and participating countries not only “clean up” their coastlines; but also assess the major sources and quantity of garbage that ends up in the marine environment. It is accepted that a whopping 80% of marine litter comes from land based sources, so internal areas are not disregarded in cleanup efforts. Volunteers who take part in the International Coastal Cleanup not only engage in picking up trash but also take part in data collection which can be used to raise future awareness and influence policy decisions on waste management.

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