Don't play with it

Wow, I'm laptop-less for a few months and Blogger does like 5 revolutions on me with the user interface. Blog template might change a couple times, pretty soon, too. Consider it your heads up before you think you've come to the wrong address.

Apologies all around for the lack of recent posts, I've been super busy recently. I've got my hands on a lot of different projects - school-wise and with my personal life. Yes I know I've spent quite a lot of time on my blog occasionally lamenting about not doing enough, wanting a job, etc. It's amazing how things start to fall in place once you start making some movements. All it takes is one step with some positive energy, and you start to draw more ideas and opportunities towards yourself. While I'm uncertain as to how successful I'm going to be in all these new endeavours, I'm pretty excited and at the very least - I'd have experience, which is something more than I have right now.

It's a beautiful thing, taking steps forward and watching the platform form below your feet with each fumbling, uncertain step.

This will be a long photo post to appease any curious minds... Or who knows, half-way through I might decide to split it for efficient labeling purposes. Anyways, do enjoy.

Oh!! And if you wanna know what I'm up to I'm pretty active of twitter these days (given the circumstances and relying primarily on my cellie). --- > http://twitter.com/eliknowsit



As mentioned previously, I'm currently doing my bachelors in Biology, specializing in Wildlife & Conservation and Marine (that's two tracks). The Wildlife & Conservation track is relatively new and we have a relatively small cozy developing student body. Those under that track, primarily, a few semesters back we decided to form an environmental conservation and awareness group named ECO.

Last semester, if you're a local reading this, we were involved with the Marine Anti-Litter Campaign. We targeted schools - primary and secondary - with presentations, hosted beach clean-ups, had a few radio and TV talk shows. I actually had a nice elaborate post to do on this with pictures. Let this be a lesson on procrastination folks, my laptop is down and so are the pics. *sigh*

The good news, we're doing big things this semester too. We're handling the Ocean Conservancy's annual International Coastal Clean-up Campaign in Grenada. You should be hearing us on the radio and TV again pretty soon.

Thus far, we had one underwater clean-up at Dragon Bay, located in the marine protected area between Flamingo Bay and Molinere. It was the first time I went there. I unintelligently didn't cover most of my upper body and had the delightful experience of swimming through give or take a million jellyfish? Ok, I'm exaggerating, but you get the point. Fortunately, they were all big enough for me to see pulse by but small enough to sting like an ant bite.

**Random knowledge**

 Dragon Bay got it's name because the bay "looks like a dragon." If you look at it with a creative mindset, you can see the head, the hump and the tail formed along the bay.

It was about an hour-two hour outing, September 30th. We had a team scuba divers and snorkelers (4 divers, 3 snorkelers) and our purpose was to retrieve as much garbage as possible within the allotted time.

I'm not a diver, so I was on the snorkling team. That was the closest I've ever been to our reefs, it was an amazing experience. The funny thing is that we spent most of the time over the reefs looking for garbage - and found nothing. Then we got closer to the beach and I swear it looked as if someone burnt a compost heap at the bottom of the sea. There were plastic bottles, cans, clothing, shoes, etc. in the midst of sediments/mud. We even found a car tire. Why would you dump a tire on a beach? Furthermore, why would you dump any of those things in the sea?

Out of sight, out of mind is not the right mindset to have. At the very least of the problem, all of those things are unsightly, especially since we're marketing ourselves as a picturesque location. Not because it's a random hidden beach behind God's back means it's a free-for-all dumping grounds. It's disgusting, not a good look folks. If you won't throw the garbage on the floor in your house and dance around it, don't do it in the environment either. The island is our home and there are facilities available to take care of disposables. Stop acting like your parents didn't teach you cleanliness in your upbringing.

I hate to see people walking the streets and throwing their cans, wrappers, bottles, etc right as they're walking when a bin is just a mere few feet away. You know what that says about you aside from being lazy? I'm digressing...

On the grander scheme of things, it's bad for the environment. Most of those things are not biodegradable. Plastics, for example, never really break down completely - the particles just get smaller. Then the marine life consumes it - then we consume the fish.

Anyways, all garbage ends up in the sea eventually - think about it. So please be mindful.

As I mentioned before, we didn't spend a long time at the clean-up so the collected garbage is not an accurate representation of the amount of garbage that was on that beach. However, it is an odd revelation of the items that people chose to litter rather than just dispose properly.

There were tampons, dolls/toys, plastic bags, bottles, cans, shoes, plastic bottles, clothes, snack wrappers and the list goes on.

And a picture of the team.

Photo: Dive Grenada Quoted from Dive Grenada "Majority of the garbage were tin cans and beverages, proving that everything on land DOES end up in the ocean! So be careful to dispose your garbage and make sure it ends up in a bin!"

The project was a collaborative effort with Dive Grenada, located by the Flamboyant Hotel in Grand Anse. I got this photo off their Facebook page.