The Friends of Sengekontacket and Beach BeFrienders MV announced that their beach cleanup during the holiday weekend, on July 5, removed more than 300 pounds of litter from the Island shoreline.
Twenty-two volunteers collected trash and marine debris for over two hours on the shoreline of Sengekontacket Pond in order to alleviate the threats to wildlife and health of the waterway.
“The tremendous response from our volunteers demonstrates how much our community cares about preserving the health and beauty of Sengekontacket,” a press release from the Friends of Sengekontacket read. “Every piece of trash removed helps protect birds, shellfish, fish, and other wildlife while making our beaches cleaner and safer for everyone to enjoy.”
To document the collected items, they used the Ocean Conservancy’s Clean Swell app. They cleaned up nearly 2,000 plastic and foam fragments, 495 cigarette butts, 241 food wrappers, 150 additional pieces of plastic waste, and more than 200 beverage containers.
The cleanup data is used in the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup database, which provides information to scientists and policymakers to better understand the causes of marine debris and create solutions to reduce ocean pollution, the press release stated.
We still have so much work to do here to responsibly dispose of trash and recycle materials. How often do pickup calls at homes result in both trash and recycle being dumped into the same truck? How often do debris fall from the trucks? And then, the carelessness of us! How many cigarette butts were collected? How many cans? This is a beloved island with the potential to save so many lives of the creatures that surround us and yes, support us through fishing. Please! Let us all work together to manage our debris in a responsible way to insure the cleanliness of the environment whether we are a company or individual.