I got invited to an out of town trip few weeks ago by Yehey! and it's the coastal clean up project conducted by Pepsi Philippines, WWF and Hamilo Coast. The trip is in Nasugbu, Batangas and the coastal clean up activity is at Hamilo Coasta. I got interested to join, because I haven't experienced a coastal clean up in my life and not only enjoy swimming under the sun, but also to learn the importance of cleaning our sea and protect marine animals. I didn't know that there were volunteers, and I thought that it was just me and few bloggers, the event became exciting as we arrived in Hamilo Coast with 2 buses packed with college students who volunteered in a print, tv and Facebook ad by Pepsi about Ayos! Pinas clean ups! (read more below)
more photos here
pics, beach, people and awarding - Pepsi-WWF coastal clean up at Hamilo Coast, Nasugbu, Batangas
Coastal clean up photos
We gathered in a tent and after drinking some Pepsi and Gatorade, we were assigned by groups, and my group with the bloggers were assigned to join the cleaning team for Pico de Loro, the area is in the beach and it's okay to start the clean up. I totally forgot that I should wear sandals and I went to this trip wearing my sneakers, but It's okay, I got no problems walking in the hot sands and climbing in a rocky area of the beach. We have this plastic net and we gathered all trash and recorded it by our team leader. I found lots of small plastic debris and broken pieces of glass or bottles, the plastic debris came from a plastic or pvc trash that was torn away by the weather or by heat, I just can't believe that the beach receives a lot of garbage coming from the open sea and I guess that these trash came from the city and traveled all the way to some beaches.
There are also a group of diver who went to the open see to clean up and also capture some Crown of Thorns starfish, a diver told me that Crown of Thorns starfish are a menace and pest already and they eat and destroy our coral reefs, the natural balance and growth of these starfish doubled up since there no longer any shrimps and big fishes anywhere, they eat the starfish as their regular diet and now the starfish rules the sea and destroys our corals.
you can check a video here compiled by blogger-diver Jayvee Fernandez
watch the video here
After the coastal clean up, we went back to the tent and started to weigh the garbage, we have a total of 26 kilos of plastics, 35 kilos of metal trash, and 25 kilos of biodegradable stuff. I just learned here that the reason of slow growth of population of fish and turtles is that many of them died in eating plastic garbage in the sea, they mistake it sometimes as jellyfish when it floats on the water. I also like to invite our friends online to help and spread the news that we should not throw garbage in the sea, let's have a good practice in arranging our waste materials and segregate the bio and non bio trash. Because our future sons and daughters won't experience a clean and peaceful beaches through out the country.
thanks to Pepsi for organizing this campaign and activity, and I just can't wait to hear the updates on the next tour and coastal clean up.
