Do You Know What's in the USVI Red Hook Mangroves?
The Marine Debris Action Plan (MDAP) team has been hosting annual Great Mangrove Cleanups since 2018 at sites across the US Virgin Islands. The most recent cleanup on St. Thomas took place on April 24th, 2021 along the National Park Road in Red Hook. The event was a success, bringing together 54 members of the community and resulted in the removal of 1,707 lbs of marine debris!
A before (left) and after (right) picture of one of the locations cleaned by volunteers during the event. Photos: A. Packard and C. Vondriska
Various marine debris collected during the cleanup. Photo: K. Toner
Over half of all volunteers were local students from the University of the Virgin Islands, Ivanna Eudora Kean High School, Charlotte Amalie High School, Antilles School, and Virgin Islands Montessori School & Peter Gruber International Academy. Other volunteers included community members and representatives from local businesses such as ProSolar Caribbean and Banco Popular Virgin Islands. Everyone worked together to remove marine debris such as plastic bottles, glass bottles, and beverage cans polluting the mangrove shoreline. “This is an incredible amount of debris concentrated in such a short length of mangrove shoreline. To remove that much debris in just a few hours speaks to the hard work of our volunteers,” says project lead Dr. Kristin Wilson Grimes from the UVI Center for Marine & Environmental Studies. Depicted below are some of the student volunteers and their families that participated in the cleanup (Photos: K. Edwards).
Volunteers from the cleanup holding one of the most interesting marine debris objects found: a life size Ronald McDonald cutout. Photo: C. Vondriska
The organizing team would like to thank partners who made the cleanup possible, including the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Marine Debris Program, NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, Virgin Islands National Park, Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service, Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority, Virgin Islands Department of Planning & Natural Resources, Virgin Islands EPSCoR, and ProSolar. Special thanks are also extended to those donating prizes for volunteers, including Coral World, Leatherback Brewing Co., Pirates Treasure Museum, Virgin Islands Ecotours, St. Thomas Restaurant Group, Banco Popular, Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Service, and the Virgin Islands Department of Planning & Natural Resources.
This infographic is based on data gathered during the 2021 St. Thomas Great Mangrove Cleanup. Credit: A. Durdall.
Cleanup efforts will be expanded to St. John this upcoming July!
Save-the-date and be sure to register for the Coral Bay Cleanup on July 24th.
Plus, keep an eye out for information about Coastweeks which begins the third week of September. Stay tuned for updates on the Virgin Islands Marine Advisory Coastweeks page.
UVI and other team members gather around total marine debris that was found during the 2021 St. Thomas Great Mangrove Cleanup. Photo: KW Grimes
You Can Help!
Get involved!
USVI Marine Debris Activity Book can be found here or here
Please be sure to take a look at the ICC Coastweeks data sheets
Email data sheets to: zola.roper@uvi.edu