First BOE Beach Clean-Up A Success

On Sunday [Dec.11] nearly two dozen volunteers joined Bermuda Ocean Explorers at their first annual End of Year Beach Clean-up at Church Bay in Southampton.

The two hour clean-up began at 2:00 p.m. with a short presentation by Anne Hyde of Keep Bermuda Beautiful highlighting the effects of plastic in our marine environment, the consequences of not properly disposing of plastics and our culture of single-use plastics such as food containers.

KBB also provided gloves, bags and the clean-up of the beach and surrounding park area began shortly after the presentation.

A few sprinkles of rain didn’t slow down the team of volunteers which included Duke of Edinburgh Award participants.

All kinds of debris were removed including pieces of plastic, bottles, rope, glow sticks, a wooden shipping pallet and more. As the event wrapped up, everyone enjoyed food provided by Flying Chef, snacks and drinks by sponsors.

Bermuda Ocean Explorers is an eco- and diving-oriented organisation launched in September.

Weldon Carl Wade, founding executive director, explains: “Our mission is to be an all-inclusive conduit, helping connect divers for the love of diving, regardless of training standard or other affiliation.

“We also want to create a synergy between existing organisations that promote ocean conservation, education and research.

“We are very happy to work with KBB and will continue to do so going forward with all of our beach and marine clean-up efforts.

“In fact, we took part in September’s KBB Marine Clean-up, providing a boat and divers to recover bottles from the bottom of Mangrove Bay.

“We will host additional clean-ups during the winter months when the temperature cools, the beaches are vacant, and recreational diving slows down a bit.”

“Further to BOE’s clean-ups, divers can look forward to a variety of events in the New Year including the Bermuda Diver Challenge [where divers log 50 dives between March and November to win prizes], the second annual ‘Bermuda to Cozumel’ Excursion, underwater photography competitions, socials and more.”

To connect with Bermuda Ocean Explorers, visit www.bermudaoceanexplorers.com or email info@bermudaoceanexplorers.com

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Category: All, Environment, News