On Saturday morning, a group of volunteers on St. Croix participated in a beach cleanup at Dorsch Beach in Frederiksted. The cleanup is part of an International Coastal Cleanup effort through the non-profit organization Ocean Conservancy to help keep beaches sanitary worldwide.
“In partnership with volunteer organizations and individuals around the globe, the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) engages people to remove trash from the world’s beaches and waterways,” according to information from the Ocean Conservancy website.
“Thanks to millions of volunteers around the world, the ICC has become a beacon of hope, leading and inspiring action in support of our oceans, [and] since its beginning, more than 18 million volunteers have collected more than 380 million pounds of trash,” Ocean Conservancy continued.
The Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service (VIMAS), part of the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), organized beach cleanups on both St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The Source contacted Howard Forbes Jr., director of VIMAS, for more information about the cleanups.
“The International Coastal Cleanup, also known as ‘Coastweeks’ locally, starts every year on the third Saturday in September, [and] this date was established by The Ocean Conservancy,” Forbes explained. “This year, Sept. 21 signifies the start of Coastweeks in the USVI,” Forbes continued.
“Some organizers schedule cleanups later in the year as weather can sometimes be unpredictable,” Forbes stated. “In the USVI, we are combatting issues with the weather as this is peak hurricane season, and we also have a limited volunteer pool,” Forbes continued. “There are a lot of people who don’t always like going to the beach to pick up trash either intentionally or unintentionally left behind by others,” he acknowledged.
“[However, because we understand] those challenges, we stretch the Coastweeks period [into] October and November, depending on the weather. [The goal is to have more time to] get more volunteers to participate,” Forbes stated. “[Notably,] school students can receive 10 hours of community service per cleanup, and because of this, a majority of our current volunteer base is students.”
Despite the obstacles that Forbes mentioned, a small but determined crowd of volunteers, including students, descended upon Dorsch Beach on Saturday to make a positive impact along the coastline.
Volunteers were provided with protective gear, trash bags, and a checklist to keep track of the items collected on the sand.
“Coastweeks cleanups focus on both the removal of trash from our coastlines and also the recording of specific data, [including the] types of trash, how much [trash is found], [as well as the] weight and location [of the garbage],” according to information from the UVI/VIMAS website.
“This data is helpful as it is used to support legislative action to combat the issue of marine debris and plastic pollution,” the website explained.
“We have about 35 years of data specific for the USVI, which really tells a story of how our coastlines are being impacted over time by marine debris and plastic pollution,” Forbes stated.
“Last year [in 2023], across the territory, [volunteers] removed 28,000 pounds of trash,” Forbes noted. “[Most] of what we find [during beach cleanups] is plastic waste, including food wrappers, bottle caps, utensils, etc.,” Forbes added.
“However, it is not uncommon, depending on the location, to find larger items like shopping carts, refrigerators, stoves, construction equipment, and the prevalent car tires,” Forbes said. “I am hopeful this year that we’ll have a great volunteer turnout and be able to remove more than 28,000 pounds of trash [throughout the Coastweeks period],” he declared.
Additional cleanups are scheduled over the coming weeks, and individuals across the Virgin Islands are encouraged to participate.
“YES Waste Management will be hosting a cleanup at Vessup Beach [on St. Thomas] on November 2, and The St. Croix Sea Turtle Project will be hosting a cleanup at the Sandy Point Wildlife Refuge on October 20 [on St. Croix],” Forbes stated. “[Additionally,] the Virgin Islands Department of Planning and Natural Resources and the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps crew on St. Croix have a few cleanups in the process of being scheduled,” he added.
“We’re happy to support additional site captains who might be interested in leading cleanups. They can reach out to me at howard.forbes@uvi.edu or call 340-693-1672,” Forbes said.
