ST. THOMAS — The Great Mangrove Cleanup, the first large-scale community cleanup of the St. Thomas East End Reserves\u00a0(STEER),\u00a0took place last Saturday,\u00a0April\u00a021, where one hundred twenty-six volunteers gathered to remove debris, large and small, from\u00a0STEER\u2019s mangrove\u00a0shorelines, according to a release issued Tuesday. STEER is a marine protected area on the east end of St. Thomas.<\/p>\n
Participating in the cleanup\u00a0was a team from the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) including members of the Center for Marine & Environmental Studies (CMES), Master of Marine and Environmental Studies (MMES) students and UVI undergraduates.<\/p>\n
Nearly 50\u00a0individuals\u00a0from All Hands and Hearts, a volunteer organization assisting in hurricane recovery in the territory, also participated in the cleanup.<\/p>\n
Conservatively, organizers estimate more than 3,000 pounds of trash were removed\u00a0\u00a0from mangrove shorelines of STEER.\u00a0The vast majority of debris originated from land-based versus marine-based sources (90-95% of items)\u00a0and most of the items collected,\u00a0approximately 65-70%, were plastic.\u00a0These\u00a0patterns are\u00a0consistent with marine debris patterns globally.<\/p>\n
Items\u00a0from the Cleanup\u00a0that could be re-used were \u2013 fenders, buoys, pieces of wood; metal was recycled for scrap;\u00a0hard\u00a0plastics\u00a0(e.g., plastic\u00a0beverage bottles, other plastic bottles)\u00a0were recycled through DPNR CZM\u2019s recycling program with\u00a0Terracycle\u00a0(run by\u00a0DPNR CZM\u2019s Education and Outreach Coordinator,\u00a0Kristina\u00a0Edwards).<\/p>\n
The top 10 items collected\u00a0at The Great Mangrove Clean-Up\u00a0were<\/strong><\/p>\n 1,765 plastic beverage containers<\/p>\n 1,000 misc. plastic pieces<\/p>\n 585 foam pieces<\/p>\n 417 aluminum beverage cans<\/p>\n 359 other plastic bottles<\/p>\n 328 plastic bags<\/p>\n 307 glass bottles<\/p>\n \uf020298 pieces of rope<\/p>\n 265 plastic cups<\/p>\n 201 plastic food containers<\/p>\n Other fun finds included:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 55 shoes<\/p>\n 1 pool noodle<\/p>\n 2 fire extinguishers<\/p>\n 11 snorkels<\/p>\n Permitted activity under DPNR permit #DFW\/CZM17004T<\/p>\n \u201cA clean-up of this scale, in such a difficult-to-access environment, like the mangroves, has never been done before in St. Thomas. Through the hard work of 126\u00a0people, we cleaned more than 3,000\u00a0lbs\u00a0of trash from the mangroves in a single day,” said Dr. Kristin Wilson Grimes. “What an amazing, team effort by all the volunteers who gave up part of their Saturday to make this happen and a huge thank you to our sponsors who made this event possible.\u201d<\/p>\n She added, \u201cWe picked up 1,765 plastic beverage containers on Saturday, more than 4 times any other item we collected that wasn\u2019t broken into pieces. That\u2019s an incredible number for such a small section of shoreline. What that tells me, is that if we want to reduce marine debris in the USVI, we should think about what we drinking out of, where we dispose of it, and where it might end up.\u201d<\/p>\n Also at hand were members of the VI-EPSCoR (Virgin Islands Established Program\u00a0to\u00a0Stimulate Competitive Research), VIMAS (Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service); federal agencies (FEMA);\u00a0local agencies (Department of\u00a0Planning &\u00a0Natural\u00a0Resources\u00a0(DPNR) Division of\u00a0Coastal\u00a0Zone\u00a0Management, DPNR Division of\u00a0Environmental\u00a0Enforcement,\u00a0and\u00a0Virgin\u00a0Islands\u00a0Waste\u00a0Management\u00a0Authority);\u00a0and\u00a0other\u00a0local non-profits. Also participating were Marine Rebuild Fund, Perfect Heart, Blue Flag, Camp\u00a0Umoja, Environmental\u00a0Association of\u00a0St.\u00a0Thomas, the Episcopal Church, and senate candidate, Sean Georges.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Cleanup\u00a0was sponsored by VI-EPSCoR, UVI CMES, VIMAS, DPNR CZM,\u00a0the\u00a0National\u00a0Oceanic &\u00a0Atmospheric\u00a0Administration (NOAA)\u00a0Coral Reef Conservation Program, NOAA Marine Debris Program,\u00a0Pizza Pi\u00a0(who\u00a0supplied\u00a0lunch\u00a0and boat\u00a0 safety\u00a0support),\u00a0the\u00a0Marine Rebuild Fund, U.S. Virgin Islands\u00a0(who provided lunch for the volunteers), VI\u00a0Ecotours\u00a0(who provided 4 staff members, and more than 30 kayaks, paddles, and life jackets). Custom Builders\u00a0provided logistical support and\u00a0supplied dump trucks to cart the trash to the\u00a0Bovoni\u00a0Landfill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ST. THOMAS — The Great Mangrove Cleanup, the first large-scale community cleanup of the St. Thomas East End Reserves\u00a0(STEER),\u00a0took place last Saturday,\u00a0April\u00a021, where one hundred twenty-six volunteers gathered to remove debris, large and small, from\u00a0STEER\u2019s mangrove\u00a0shorelines, according to a release issued Tuesday. STEER is a marine protected area on the east end of St. Thomas. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":62751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[628,5310,147],"tags":[8179],"yoast_head":"\n