Last year, people around the world removed TEN MILLION POUNDS of trash from almost 18,000 miles of beaches and coastal waterways as part of the International Coastal Cleanup Day. This year, the international event, which is organized by Ocean Conservancy, will be held on Saturday, Sept 21. In Jamaica, dozens of youth from the community of Rockfort (where Youth Opportunities Unlimited is currently working) will take part. In addition to YOU youths, Jamaicans from all over will converge on Fort Rocky Beach in the Palisadoes area, among other locations, to clean up the coast. (This is a small spit of land near Kingston’s airport).

Jamaica’s island-wide event is being hosted by the Jamaica Environment Trust and the RBC Blue Water Project. This year, it seems even more timely and crucial to get people involved and raise awareness as the government debates the fate of the Goat Islands. (The Chinese government has proposed a massive industrial/commercial development that would gravely impact this protected area.)

Here are some more facts and figures for you:

Last year, more than half-a-million people participated in the global event.

Many weird items were collected: 4,159 candles; 40 lottery tickets; 2,492 sports balls; 236 toothbrushes and 117 mattresses.

97 countries participated with the top three being the U.S., the Philippines and Canada.

The most commonly found items are cigarette butts (over 2.1 million), food wrappers (over 1.4 million), and beverage containers (over a million.)

More than 2.6 billion people rely on the ocean for a source of protein.

(I urge you to check out Ocean Conservancy’s web site. It is full of practical, interesting information about how you can help.)

Ultimately, there would be no need for an NGO such as the Ocean Conservancy (who is organizing the event) to explain and advocate for healthy, clean oceans. However, there is still so much work to do to protect the world’s oceans. Jamaica is no exception. Many of the coastal areas are clogged with trash, environmental protection rules are lax or not enforced and the tourism industry thrives on cruise ships, which both pollute the waters and destroy the reefs. But hopefully through events such as this, awareness will be raised, trash will be collected and people will think twice about discarding garbage improperly.