This morning a number of World ARC boats, Seaside, Niobe, RAID, Aurora B, Charm, Manihi, gathered together to help clear litter which has been washed up on the coastline in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz.
Organised by Mingas Por El Mar, the group were firstly given a talk and explanation about the efforts in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands to reduce the use of plastics and their clean-up activities.
Splitting into two groups, the children went to the beach area to filter the sand and look for micro particles of plastic of which they found many coloured pieces. The adults were given large bags and made their way across the lava rocks taking advantage of the tide being out.
The teams collected three big bags of items to include, plastic bottles, glass, polystyrene, straws, crisp packets, bottle tops, gloves, flip flops, a towel, broken bucket, lots of rope and lines, car tyres and even two large plastic canoes found by Bence on Niobe.
Mingas Por El Mar’s project aims to educate the community about the amount of garbage found on all the beaches of Ecuador and generate a change of consciousness in which everyone understands how marine pollution affects us and takes responsibility for this problem.
Their message is to highlight the importance of changing our consumption habits, reducing our use of disposable plastics and implementing a culture of reuse and recycling.
It was a privilege for World ARC to be a very small part if this programme and those who attended the beach clean have come away with a better awareness of their own individual responsibility to the protection and conservation of nature.