Since the end of the school year, roughly 10 people — both students and adults — have been cleaning the beaches and shorelines and keeping them free of garbage.
“It started with a press release that came out from the Marine Institute about Friends of the Beaches chapters that’s been organized in Newfoundland,” said Robin Squire, regional recreation director with Eastport Peninsula Recreation and Wellness. “We thought that would be something we would like to get involved in, considering the Eastport Peninsula is nothing but beaches. We called Justin Dearing (conference co-ordinator with Marine Institute), and within a couple of days he came out to the school (Holy Cross School Complex in Eastport) and did a presentation with our students from Kindergarten to Grade 6, and then we took the youth down to the beach where they did a clean-up.”
The beaches involved include Eastport Beach, Seal Cove Beach, North Side Beach, Sandy Cove Beach, and numerous shorelines in Salvage, Burnside, St. Chads and Sandringham.
Ms. Squire said there are many reasons why everyone on the Eastport Peninsula should be concerned over the state of local beaches.
“When you look at what’s happening now, where the Eastport Peninsula is such a high tourism area, we need to keep our beaches clean specifically for that reason. Also, for the long-term sustainability of having a healthy environment, we have to instill in our young people the importance of keeping our environment clean, and keeping our beaches clean,” she said. “It’s also important to keep our beaches clean to ensure our animals remain healthy. We have to protect this…we’re only borrowing it from our children.”
Mr. Dearing said whenever he speaks to students at schools across the province, he tries to send the message that our everyday actions have an impact, and he wants the students to recognize that impact.
“When you’re young, you see things happening and you think that’s the way things have always been. I try to get the kids to be aware about what’s going on, and to ask a handful of simple questions like, is this hurting things or helping things? What can I do differently? Who can I get to help? Asking those types of questions will help them recognize the reality, and this is what goes on if I use plastic bags, or when I buy bottled water, or this is what happens if I throw debris into the ocean,” said Mr. Dearing. “We’re the ones eating the fish, and when plastic gets thrown into the ocean, it breaks up into small bits. The fish eat it, and then we eat it, and that’s why there are a lot of health concerns these days that wasn’t so rampant 15, 20, 30 years ago.”
“It instills a sense of ownership and pride in our young people as to what we have.” - Robin Squire
There are about 10 people who are members of the unofficial Friends of the Beaches group on the peninsula, and Ms. Squire said they’re going to apply to become an official chapter once school begins.
Once they become an official chapter — there are four current chapters — the statistics sent to Marine Institute will be added with statistics sent from the other chapters.
“What we’re doing is keeping our statistics as to how many people go down on the beach, how often they go there, and how much they pick up,” said Ms. Squire. “We’ll be giving that information to the Marine Institute…and we will be looking at applying to become an official chapter and having it as a more organized activity.
“Once we become an organized chapter, the stats will show what’s coming in on the beaches,” she added. “The Eastport Peninsula is such a high tourist area, and so many tourists come to our beaches, we do a daily clean-up, so if anybody’s down there during the night, we’re cleaning all of the garbage that’s left behind.”
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