Today we visited the island of Gun Cay to do a vegetation survey and a beach seine. While we were there we noticed a remarkable amount of garbage floating in the water and littered all over the shore. There were all sorts of trash and waste cluttering the shore and endangering many of the native animals. We discovered objects varying from pop bottles, to beer cans, random shoes, oil cans, chip bags, and even a hotel key card from 1957. We were shocked and a little bit disturbed by the carelessness of the people who had visited the island previously. Do you have any suggestions of ways visitors both to Gun Cay and the entire ocean could better manage their trash to prevent such high levels of pollution?
Kyle and Erin
I know that you've already discussed this during the pre-trip classes, but certainly encouraging visitors to make less garbage by bringing, for example, a refillable water bottle (instead of a pop can) or a larger container of snacks (instead of individual chip bags) would cut down overall waste and perhaps even individual waste. It is quite sad that some people don't give the ocean the respect it deserves.