Austin Farier from the Department of Environment weighs one of over 170 bags of trash

Members and friends of the St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Network (www.stkittsturtles.com) were out on the Keys to Cayon beach on Saturday 23rd September as part of the International Beach Clean Up organised by The Ocean Conservancy (www.oceanconservancy.org) and the St. Kitts Department of Environment.

Over 80 persons covered the entire beach in two shifts " in the morning group from 7 to 10am and in the afternoon from 3 to 7 pm. 

171 large garbage bags of trash were collected, including of plastic bottles, glass bottles, bottle caps, straws, cigarette lighters, lumps of styrofoam, shoes, fishing line, rope and numerous small pieces of plastic.

Most of this trash would have been brought in from the sea and continually washes up on our shores particularly on the Atlantic beaches. 

As the Keys to Cayon beach is our primary Leatherback Turtle nesting beach, it is important that efforts are made to keep it clear of garbage which might impede the adult females as they come on shore to lay their eggs and will certainly cause enormous difficulties for the young hatchlings when they emerge from the nest and try to get across the beach to the ocean.

Austin Farier of the Department of Environment and Ralph Wilkins of the Department of Fisheries prepare bags for weighing

Team members search through the vegetation for trash