Kidz At Sea SXM Coastal Cleanup Project Carries Out First Underwater Cleanup Of The Year In Collaboration With St Maarten Nature Foundation And Local Dive Companies.

On Saturday a group of young St Maarten adults participated in an Underwater CleanUp hosted by The Scuba Shop as part of the by Kidz at Sea’s SXM Coastal Cleanup project.

Having concluded 4 months of PADI Scuba dive training, the project participants are well trained to safely search and recover small to medium sized debris along our exterior coastline, cleaning up and keeping it safe for all to use.

Monitored by the St Maarten Nature Foundation, as well as local dive schools Dive Adventures and SXM Divers, the team managed to collect a total of 613 pounds of debris. Before disposal, the debris was brought back to The Scuba Shop where the participants weighed, sorted and logged each find. The debris consisted mainly of zinc roofing, guttering and plastic pipes, likely still from hurricane Irma, as well as everyday pollution of black plastic bags and single-use plastic cups. The results were then entered into both the PADI AWARE Dive Against Debris and the EU In-No-Plastics databases and remain available for future statistical needs.

“613 pounds of debris and garbage removed from our underwater coastline in a coordinated, 2 hour Scuba dive is sad, yet very satisfying” said Kim of The Scuba Shop and founder, along with Leslie Hickerson, of the SXM Coastal CleanUp Project. “So far, in 4 such CleanUp dives we have targeted just one small area of our coastline along the beautiful and popular Simpson Bay Beach. When we add up that this is now just over 2000 pounds collected in less than 8 hours, we are saddened by just how much Irma debris is remaining, as well as how much single use plastic is finding it’s way daily into our waterways and we realize just how necessary this project is.”

The Kidz at Sea SXM Coastal CleanUp project is part of the island’s recovery programme from Hurricane Irma, funded by the Dutch Government under the Sint Maarten Trust Fund. R4CR selects different projects each year to help build a stronger and cleaner St Maarten. Over the last two years, twenty four young St Maarteners, who are passionate about the marine environment and the island, have participated and received the needed Scuba dive training to continue to volunteer for this and future underwater CleanUps.

“Kidz at Sea focuses on the Maritime training of young St Maarteners” said Lorraine Talmi Kidz at Sea board member. “With the SXM Coastal CleanUp project we are training a group of St Maarten divers who will be on hand to start underwater cleanups immediately after any future hurricanes, as well as periodic cleanups against daily single use plastic and garbage. The need is overwhelming! We encourage everyone who brings a picnic to the beach to take their trash away with them when they leave and dispose of it properly so it does not end up in the water.”

A special thanks to Domino’s Pizza SXM for feeding the volunteers, as well as to all the participating dive schools and businesses that make this event possible. For more information on future CleanUps follow @SXMcoastalcleanup and @kidzatsea or contact The Scuba Shop at info@thescubashop.net.