Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Small Islands Voice Clean-Up Troupe

Looking for a fun way to participate in Carnival this year?

Join the Small Islands Voice Carnival Clean-Up Troupe!

The Clean-Up Troupe follows the Carnival parade and picks up trash along the way, encouraging others to keep our streets clean!

Here are some pictures from last year's event:



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gogoshire's SIV Clean Up Troupe 2007 photosetgogoshire's SIV Clean Up Troupe 2007 photoset





Not only does the Clean-Up Troupe do something good, they have a good time, too!

If you're interested in participating in the Clean-Up Troupe, email Kate Orchard at brimstonehill@sisterisles.kn for details on what you can do!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The Critters of Banana Bay Say, "Thanks A Bunch!"

On Saturday, November 10, 55 participants came together to clean up Banana Bay - the beach, the reef, and the surrounding area.

This was the 3rd beach/reef clean for St. Kitts Reef Ecology Watch Group, and I think it's safe to say that we've got a base. There are almost 20 people that have participated in each of the cleans. How cool is that?

It's very cool.

What made this beach clean extra cool was that more parents brought their kids. Teaching the youngsters to take care of the planet is an important lesson, and it can't be taught too early.

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Way to go parents!

We collected about 100 bags of garbage - not too shabby. The reef cleaners were maybe a bit discouraged at the huge amount of plastics found in the water; it was impossible to get all of it out of the water. However, we reminded each other that we can't save the world, and taking out what we can is leaving the reef in a better state than it was in last week.

Much of the garbage we found was left behind by people using the beach, so we put up a super cool sign asking people to please take their trash home with them when they leave so that the beach will stay nice and clean.

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All in all, come sunset, the group was pretty satisfied with our accomplishments. All the beach cleaners signed the sign in hopes that those who come upon it will appreciate the efforts and pack out their trash.

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Light one candle. That's all we can do.



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Monday, November 5, 2007

November 10 @ 2pm

Banana Bay Beach Clean

November 10 Beach Clean - Banana Bay

Cockleshell Beach won the poll fair and square; however, we had a look around, and someone else has cleaned the beach already. It looks great!

The 1st runner up was BANANA BAY, so that's where we're headed!

We walked around yesterday, and here's what we found.
IMG_2559.JPGTurtles nest on this beach.

IMG_2549.JPGthis isn't a trash can!

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IMG_2557.JPGGarbage, garbage everywhere

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There is garbage in the water, too, so we need some snorkelers to fish it out. Much of the garbage that we saw here was not washed up on shore; it was dumped by people in the area. There's good news and bad news with that information.

First the bad news:
We who live on St. Kitts are litterbugs :( We live in a beautiful place but we're throwing our trash on the ground.

Now the good news:
This is a smaller problem than what Turtle Beach faces, which is trash washed in by currents. We can tackle the litter problem on St. Kitts by educating our children in their schools. We can post signs. We can find ways to combat this problem on our beaches. Local change is easier than global change, and while it's just a drop in the bucket towards global change, lots and lots of drops is how every bucket gets filled!

For those of you who don't know where Banana Bay is, head towards Cockleshell, and they'll be a marked turn off on the right side of the road. Follow the signs to the event.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Thanks a Thousand!

About one hundred volunteers showed up at Turtle Beach on October 6, and they cleaned ONE THOUSAND pounds of trash off the beach and reef.

That's what I call a success!

It was pretty cool, actually. I figured if we were lucky, about 50-60 people would show, so when the cars kept arriving, one after the other, I was jumping up and down with excitement. To see all these people giving up their Saturdays to work together for a common cause was amazing. Phantasmagorical is the word my dad would use!

After the clean, we had a great BBQ at the Cramer's house. People feasted on veggie kebabs, falafel pitas, bbq chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit skewers, and homemade tollhouse cookies. And their was lots of ice cold beer, too!

We gave prizes to the best youth teams, so the 2 hard-working teams that went home with iTunes gift certificates (the most environmentally friendly prize we could think of that teens would like) were Christopher and Alexander King and Jake Getz and Nikki Isles.

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So many people came together to make the day a success. I'd like to thank St. Kitts Foundation for their sponsorship of the event, and the Cramer family for hosting the BBQ! Thanks also go to Silver Reef, St. Christopher Club, Newfound Group, and Turtle Tours. A special thanks to Jay Farier from the St. Kitts Department of Environment and Planning who arrived with a scale, giving us the final tally of 1033 pounds! With everyone working together, we're doing great things.



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gogoshire's Turtle Beach Clean Badge photosetgogoshire's Turtle Beach Clean Badge photoset



Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Turtle Beach Reef&Beach Clean, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2pm

Garbage, Garbage, Everywhere!

This weekend, St. Kitts Reef Ecology Watch Group is tackling the beach and reef at Turtle Beach. We went down last weekend to check it out, and it was awful! Here are some pictures so you can see what we're dealing with!












Where does all of this trash come from? It's the shoe that your friend on the boat lost, it's the bottle cap of your water bottle that you dropped, it's the grapefruit rinds from that cruise ship's breakfast buffet, it's that styrofoam food container that blew away.... Who knows? It comes from all over and from so many different places.

Can we keep up with the trash? Honestly, no. Change has to come from a different place. We'll clean this beach Saturday, but the tides will bring in more garbage next week. Our job has no end in sight.

Should we despair? Just throw up our hands and give up? No! Because cleaning the beaches raises our own awareness. With each piece of trash we pick up, we are participating with the health of our planet, and that's a really neat thing. With each bottle cap and chunk of styrofoam, we think about the materials we use in our daily lives and where they end up. That's big time stuff!

Also, cleaning the beaches makes the area nicer for the critters that live there, whether they be reef fish or turtles or water birds or mongoose. Those critters can get really sick when they ingest this junk, and for those of us that eat meat, this stuff you see on the beach becomes part of the food chain. Gross!

So what we're doing might seem like an exercise in futility, but it's an exercise we have to do!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Frigate Beach Bar Crawl Fundraiser Postponed

Due to unforeseen scheduling conflicts, we have had to postpone the Sept. 28 Frigate Beach Bar Crawl fundraiser in order to allow greater attendance.

For those that are still interested, and especially those that have already RSVPd, we'll inform you of the new date as soon as possible.

The October 6 Beach Clean is still on schedule at 2pm, Saturday, October 6, at Turtle Beach.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Kickoff Event a Success

Many thanks to all the volunteers who turned out on Sunday, September 9, to help with the AFTER DEAN BEACH & REEF CLEAN on South Friar's Beach. We collected a bunch of garbage from the beach, the mangrove, and the reef, and we had a good time doing it.

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The prizes for collecting the most trash went to Sarah Atkins for surf and Pat Fussey for turf!




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The debris collected included plastic cups, plastic bags, bottles, spent fireworks, wire, discarded clothing, cans, bullets(!), fishing lures, Styrofoam, scrap metal, lawn chairs, light bulbs, rope, and other debris that people leave behind.

While cleaning the beaches and the reefs of St. Kitts will leave us with more beautiful places to enjoy, the more serious benefit is a healthier marine and avian population. As our island relies heavily on tourism and fisheries, these are big benefits.

Thanks again to everyone who joined us, and we hope to see everyone back (with friends) for the upcoming events.

Check out more pictures from the event! (Special thanks to E. Cornelia and R. Stimmelmayr for pics)



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Monday, August 27, 2007