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:

www.flickr.com gogoshire'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!

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.



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.



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.



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

www.flickr.com

November 10 @ 2pm

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.
Turtles nest on this beach.

this isn't a trash can!



Garbage, garbage everywhere



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.