Let’s move! It’s time to make our move and show love to the seas. It's time to mean the difference between wanting and ‘actually doing’ our share in protecting our coastal areas.
15 September 2012. Organized by Inspire@HP with support from HP SurfShack, volunteers from across the business functions of Hewlett Packard Philippines gathered at Vistamar Beach Resort to make their move and support the conservation of our long stretch of coastline. For the 2nd year in a row, the stokedtraveler is back to the coast of Anilao, Batangas to do his share for the ocean.
There were some interesting additions to this year’s activity. More than just a dive and shore cleanup, some volunteers were also given the chance to do skin dive.
Surfboards were also provisioned to provide rest for weary swimmers.
There’s just no amount of rain nor depth of seawater level that would stop the volunteers to achieve what they have set out for – to clean up the coast of Anilao.
According to Ocean Conservancy’s data release for 2011, over half a million volunteers dived for or picked up approximately 9 million pounds of trash from more than 20 thousand miles of coastline worldwide. The Philippines, being an archipelago, possess 36,289 km of coastline (source: CIA World Factbook). This means that if every global volunteer went to the Philippines and cleaned up our coastal areas then they would’ve managed to cover almost every inch of our coastline! Better yet, if every person living within these coastlines would make their move to clean up their own stretch of the coast, then we’d have trash-free zones of the coast and a healthy habitat for every person and animal benefiting from our rich coast lines.
Sadly this isn’t the case as the stokedtraveler and many other volunteers would notice. Most of the local residents of the areas they visited were the primary contributors of trash. The stokedtraveler wished to see some initiative from the locals to ask around and help while groups of volunteers cleaned the beach outside their homes. Unfortunately, the people he encountered would only stare from a distance perhaps thinking how futile the activity was because it won’t be long until they dump their next set of trash.
The good news is – the Philippines actually ranks 2nd among all the countries participating in the International Coastal Cleanup amassing over 100,000 volunteers or one-fifth of the total number of all the volunteers in 2011. The top spot goes to the United States while closely following the Philippines is Canada, India and Dominican Republic. If only more NGOs, LGUs and private corporations would participate year-by-year then the advocacy just might have a chance to really spark a change in the Sea.
The move is not just about picking up trash, painstakingly counting each piece and categorizing them. It is also about collecting valuable data to generate lasting solutions to reduce the ocean debris being generated by our daily activities. Plastic, bottles and cigarette butts are common-sight during the cleanup drives. However, volunteers also run into the most unusual trash thrown into the ocean. From medical supplies (syringes, dextrose containers) and sanitary use items (napkins, diapers) to PC parts (memory chips) and various forms of used clothing, the ocean has become one big trash bin of anything used and disposed by humankind.
With all these seen and noted in this year’s cleanup activity, volunteers from inspire@HP will continue to remain vigilant of the experiences they take home from participating in the event. The stokedtraveler and the inspire@HP volunteers are only close to a hundred. But, they are definitely one hundred more persons acting as advocates for the protection of our oceans.
Let's move! Let's Love the ocean! Create the spark for a sea of change
Photo Credits to the owners of the unmarked photos
More information on Ocean Conservancy data release 2011 here
International Coastal Cleanup 2011 Blog entry here
International Coastal Cleanup 2011 Blog entry here
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