We are in the Berry Islands, a small group of islands in the Bahamas, and yesterday we took a walk to the ocean side of an island that we were anchored off of. The amount of plastic on the shore was staggering. I saw tires, sunscreen bottles, fishing nets, oil containers, light bulbs, and hundreds and hundreds of bits and pieces of broken down plastics. It was saddening to see such a beautiful coastline polluted. This is not the first place we have seen it. Having almost completed our circumnavigation, we have been to many different places and have sadly seen it almost everywhere. The worst of it being Indonesia. Here, rivers were used as trash cans, and the people didn’t even think twice about littering! The streets and gutters were brimming with trash, and the beautiful landscape was so polluted that the entire place looked like a trash heap. And for the rest of our time in the Indian Ocean we saw evidence of this problem. In fact, we saw it in every ocean we crossed: the Pacific, the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans. Even in Chagos (in the Indian Ocean), one of the most remote places on earth, and completely uninhabited, we found rubber flip-flops, plastic bottles, and fishing buoys and nets, on the otherwise pristine beaches. We picked up what we could and had bonfires to burn it. What can we do about this terrible substance known as plastic? For starters we can follow the four R’s. You’re probably familiar with the three R’s, “reduce, reuse, recycle” but there is another part that is key to this cycle. Refuse! Refuse plastic straws, refuse to buy plastic bottles or containers, and refuse the store’s plastic bags…bring your own reusable bag to the store! Use or buy glass when possible! Spread the word! Tell your friends and family how they can help reduce plastic usage. The more people are educated on the problem, the more chance we have of stopping this once and for all! Don’t feel like you can’t make a difference! Together we can and will make a difference! We must make a difference, or we face looking out onto plastic oceans. Remember we can only conquer the problem together. Let’s not let our beautiful Blue Planet become our Plastic Planet!
Who : Dave, Guds, Ben, Gaby
Where : Berry Island, Bahamas.
Boat : Lagoon 400
