Cayman Islands cleaned up thanks to Marine Champions

Twenty eight bin bags of discarded polystyrene have been removed from a local beach beauty spot by members of Cayman Islands Divers.

Organised by the club’s BSAC Marine Champion, Samantha Cooper, the clean-up at Spotters Bay came after a makeshift raft carrying Cuban refugees broke up on the shore earlier this year. The smashed raft resulted in large amounts of polystyrene debris along the coastline that was in danger of being washed back into the ocean. 

Following careful planning due to the remote nature of the beach, Samantha and Cayman Islands Divers’ Chair Laura Brind along with local resident Gill Gordon were eventually able to conduct their beach clean last month.

As one of the first BSAC members to sign up as a Marine Champion when the initiative was launched in back in August, Samantha saw the beach clean as an ideal marine clean-up project for her club.

Samantha said:

This was a project I wanted to do as soon as I heard about it. We suggested it to Plastic Free Cayman but the site wasn't accessible enough to be one of their beach cleans. So we decided to take it on.

The team spent a full morning cleaning up the debris, resulting in 28 full bags of waste polystyrene. However, Samantha estimates that their impressive haul was only around 40% of the debris on the beach.

We are planning to go back in the near future as we don’t want to leave the rest there. As well as the polystyrene, we also hope to be able to dismantle and remove the raft’s metal frame, if we can get additional help.

Marine litter is a real problem, especially in the east end of the island. It makes me so sad because Cayman is such a beautiful place with an amazing marine environment.

As Cayman Islands Divers Marine Champion, Samantha is now aiming to organise a monthly activity to engage her club members in marine conservation. She continued: 

Seeing the negative human impact on the ocean ecosystem and coastal environments is heartbreaking, which is why I took on the Marine Champion role. I hope through our club activities we can raise awareness, help to educate the community and repair some of the damage.