Coastweeks is the what the locals in the USVI call International Coastal Cleanup (YouTube) week. It starts September 19th and the USVI’s are getting ready for a week’s of hard and dirty work – but much needed. During that week you will find students, various organizations, business groups, and an army of people who will be heading to the beaches of the USVI to pick up and categorize the garbage they find. Organized beach clean-ups will run through September and October.
At last year’s Coastweeks there were 1,400 volunteers on St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix who picked up 18,600 pounds of trash from 43 miles of beaches! St. Thomas won the prize for the most garbage, if anyone would really want that prize – 12,275 pounds of trash. St. John was second with 3,000 pounds of trash, and St. Croix was third with 2,035 of trash. The environment has no winners when our citizens are creating such a mess of Mother Nature’s playground. This is in the same category of contributing to the well being of the earth as the USVI Waste Management Authority contract to create alternative energy in the USVI from trash.
This year’s Coastweeks begins at Brewer’s Bay. The cleanup will be from 8AM to noon and everyone can help – from kids to the elders. Heather Hitt, Coastal Zone outreach coordinator at the Planning and Natural Resources Department, would prefer that people not litter so there would be no need for cleanups, but said that since it does occur, it’s important to pick the litter up. Ms. Hitt has suggested that volunteers bring their bathing suits and snorkels so the ocean floor near the beaches can be cleaned up, too.
The Friends of V.I. National Park, which coordinates efforts on St. John, plans a cleanup at Drunk Bay. It will start at 9 a.m. Sept. 19 in the Salt Pond parking lot. Those participating will then walk through Salt Pond Beach to Drunk Bay. “It’s a place where a lot of debris from the BVI lands,” said Friends Program Manager Audrey Penn. The Friends picked Drunk Bay because it’s not easily accessible, so adopt-a-beach groups don’t pick it.
This year, Coastweeks on St. Croix received a $2,700 grant from the V.I. Waste Management Authority to pay for student transportation to the beaches for cleanups, Taylor said. She hopes to get about 40 student groups to do cleanups because transportation will be provided. “It’s important to get to them early on,” she said. “Lots of kids still litter, and if we get to the kids, we get to the parents.”
You can assist with organizing your local Coastal Cleanup Week, or be a volunteer, no matter where you in the world. Cleaning up the trash is extremely satisfying. Personally discovering how the trash is impacting our oceans is extremely sad. If you would like to participate in they USVI Coastweeks activities, call Taylor on St. Croix at 340.692.4046, Hitt on St. Thomas at 340.774.3320, ext. 5117, or Penn on St. John at 340.779.4940. I hope to see you on the beach sometime in September or October doing your part to make a difference. Let me know what beach you decide to attack. Your Caribbean lifestyle detective remains on duty. Until next time…fair winds!
