"It's not mine, but I'll pick it up," said a young member of Basic, Bible, Bubbles Marine Club involved in Saturday's International Coast Cleanup Day at Hassel Island. The annual event, organized this year by Admiralty Dive Center, was supported by more than 50 local volunteers who picked up trash on the shore and underwater.
Admiralty owners Marty and Portia Martinez provided snorkel and dive equipment for helpers who braved the industrial waters of Haulover Cut to pick up the usual bottles and cans, as well assorted marine scraps.
"I think I'm pulling up a boat bit by bit," remarked Ali, one of Admiralty's dive instructors.
Approximately 70 bags of trash were filled and piled along side large items such tires, fishing nets, a ladder, a sail, and plenty of scrap metal.
A brief case pulled up raised the hopes of the volunteers, until they found it was empty. All the refuse collected will be picked up by the National Park Service and taken to the University of the Virgin Islands for sorting and recording by item. The tally is forwarded to a national database. The information is used for producing programs to combat the litter problem.
The International Coast Cleanup, organized by the Center for Marine Conservation, is supported by more than 200,000 people worldwide. The St Thomas group Project AWARE (Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility, and Education), an environmental education project of the Professional Diving Instructors, sponsored the cleanup on Hassel Island.
As Hassel Island is only 350 meters from the Charlotte Amalie waterfront, an abundance of trash floats over from the mainland.
Worldwide, most beach and water debris comes from the from inland.
At the end of the event, volunteers were given lunch and t-shirts both donated by the Hard Rock Café. A variety of prizes from local merchants also was raffled off.
No one could say Saturday where the trash will be taken once it has been catalogued at UVI.
