Ocean Project Seychelles - Beach clean-up on Saturday at Anse Royale |15 March 2018

The Ocean Project Seychelles – an environmental NGO -- is organising another beach clean-up which will take place at 9.30am this coming Saturday March 17 at Anse Royale beach.

It will be in collaboration with the British high commission to celebrate Commonwealth Week.

This follows a similar activity organised by the NGO recently at Amitié beach on Praslin which saw the participation of a group of sixteen primary and secondary school students from Vijay International School Praslin (VISP).

The Praslin clean-up – which took place on February 24 – saw volunteers clearing debris in front of the Nature Seychelles CORAL (Centre for Ocean Restoration Awareness and Learning).

The clean-up was a collaboration between The Ocean Project Seychelles and the Nature Seychelles’ Reef Rescuers, and was supported by parents and teachers from VISP, as well as members from The Ocean Project Seychelles and Reef Rescuers.

Students were representing eco-clubs from VISP, which included the Vallée de Mai Club for primary school-aged students, and the Eco-Friendly Club for secondary school-aged students.

Volunteers on the day collected a variety of debris within the space of two hours. These included: 11kg of clothing, 20+ plastic bottles, approximately 4kg of hard and soft plastic bits, and handfuls of plastic bottle tops, plastic straws and stirrers, plastic cups and cutlery, balloons and ribbons, and cigarette butts. Other items included slippers, glass bottles, metal cans, metal bottle tops and foam insulation and packaging.

For the first time, over 25kg of fishing nets were collected and prevented from entering the ocean. This marked a considerable increase from the small quantities of fishing nets that were usually collected from beach clean-ups. Abandoned fishing nets in particular pose a considerable risk to the environment and marine life. Fishing nets can travel long distances from their points of origin and can remain in the ocean long after they are discarded, resulting in the entrapment and death of marine mammals, sea birds and fish.

Commenting on the success of their first Praslin beach clean-up, Zara Pardiwalla, the co-founder of The Ocean Project, remarked:

“We remain committed to utilising clean-ups as a means of combining education and action on the issue of marine debris and marine plastics pollution. It is through understanding that we can begin to care and act on a problem. It was amazing to have such an enthusiastic and environmentally-conscious group of young students from VISP's eco-clubs join us on Saturday, geared with their own reusable water bottles! We have no doubt that this bunch will continue to channel their inner 'happy cleaner' and pick up any debris they find on their visits to the beach and inspire others to do so. We also hope this will be the start of more clean-ups on Praslin and beyond, enabling us to engage persons beyond Mahé to take action on marine debris."

Commenting on the event, Paul Anstey & Chloe Shute from Nature Seychelles’ Reef Rescuers said:

“It’s great to see a local Seychellois organisation directly tackling ocean pollution, with the help of the community. With their assistance, we were able to engage with several students, teachers and parents from Vijay International School Praslin, to encourage and promote greater environmental awareness; an important element of the Reef Rescuers project. It was great to see the enthusiasm of the students and the dedication of the teaching staff, who needed little encouragement getting stuck in. Overall, it was a very pleasant and successful morning for all.”

Eco-Friendly Club members from VISP also shared their thoughts on the clean-up. Phinehas Samraj said “I was surprised by the amount of rubbish there was”, and that “I enjoyed the experience and…[hope] to do more beach clean-ups in the future”, while Abigail Labuschagne commented that “[the organisers] chose the right beach, as there was a lot of rubbish. I can't wait to go again and clean up a different beach!”

The latest clean-up is the most recent activity of its kind organised by The Ocean Project Seychelles. Clean-ups take place on a monthly basis and aim to tackle the issue of marine debris and plastics pollution, by educating the public on the threats of marine debris to oceans, marine life and potentially human life. They also promote active citizenship, by engaging the public to take action in stopping debris from entering the oceans. Volunteers assist in collecting as much debris as possible, and engage in ‘citizen science’ by categorising and collecting data on the types and amounts of debris collected on beaches and rivers.

Another key objective of The Ocean Project Seychelles is to encourage the public to switch to environmentally-friendly, re-usable alternatives to single-use plastics. The NGO was recently successful in securing a grant under the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme, which will be used to launch their newest project, The Last Straw Campaign. The campaign will aim to reduce the use of plastic straws in Seychelles through 1) commitments from venues to stop serving plastic straws, and 2) commitments from individuals to stop using plastic straws. The Last Straw Campaign will be launched by The Ocean Project Seychelles within the next couple of months. 

Contributed