Clean up our act

In less than two weeks there is a special international event to help clean our planet’s coastlines. Antigua and Barbuda are unique here in the Caribbean because we have so much coastline and so many beaches. Many of them are in need of some major cleaning and maintenance. All of us in the Atlantic are connected by a huge circular ocean current which I spoke about in one of my most popular blog entries and we get garbage (both flotsam and jetsam) floating up on windward beaches all the time.

There are no national beach clean up programs and its up to the general public to do the job.

Unfortunately the general public isn’t that good at cleaning up the beaches themselves and there is a huge amount of garbage around our coastline that has ended up there because of careless people here on the island. Saturday September 15th is International Coastal Cleanup day and there is a growing group of people here on the island that plans on making a big difference on that day. What I have been telling people to do is to use it as an excuse to have a beach day. Just take your buckets and spades, fishing rod, cooler of beer, or whatever it is that you take to the beach when you go, and enjoy a lovely day at the beach with the goal of taking home more than you brought with you.

Just pack an extra garbage bag and scoop up a few bits and pieces. That way you had a great day at the beach and helped clean up a bit of our planet’s coastline. I am not 100% sure what our adventure antigua group is gonna do but we may do a bit of Barbuda's coastline which would be fun too.

For more info on the whole thing please check out http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=9221.0&dlv_id=12381&JServSessionIdr005=c8eajwtb94.app1b Also, if you are into facebook there is an event for the Antigua Coastal Cleanup and you should sign up. It can be found in the Antigua network event calendar.