The group’s main focus was to provide awareness on what trash was in our oceans. Through this project, the group members realized that cigarette butts, candy wrappers, and plastic were the three items that were most concerning.
3. PROJECT AWARE
The main focus of Project Aware is to clean up the oceans and
bring awareness to what is in the oceans and what is
happening with our oceans.
This is a world wide movement that seeks to educate and
inform people about marine debris. The Project mainly
focuses on Dive Against Debris, an underwater cleanup and
awareness movement, however, they also have a land
component to help raise awareness for what is going into the
water and will become surface and sea floor debris.
Most people think that once it enters the water it is out of sight
and out of mind but that is not the case. It will simply wash up
somewhere or end up on the sea floor.
4. LAND DATA FOR CLEAN-UPS
Land data for the clean ups are submitted to the ocean
conservancy website. This is where you record major
things and the strangest finds!
5.
6.
7. DIRTIEST BEACH IN HAWAII-
KAMILO BEACH
The combination of wind and currents make this the direst
spot on Hawaii Island.
@ Kamilo Beach
8. WHAT WE DID
A bit of overview about why it is
important
We cleaned up a few beaches
14. THE TOP THREE ITEMS OF
LOCAL CONCERN
Cigarette Butts
Plastic
Food Containers
15. TOP THREE ITEMS OF WORLD WIDE
CONCERN ACCORDING TO PROJECT
AWARE
Cigarette Butts
Candy Wrappers
Plastic
16. CONNECTION TO
SUSTAINABILITY
In order to become a more sustainable place to
live, everyone will need to start taking small
steps every time they go out to make less
debris that will end up in the ocean.
It is not a one day event, it is a lifestyle of not
overlooking or assuming someone else will do
it.
17. TECHNOLOGY MAKING THE
DIFFERENCE
With the advent of social media, it is easier to host clean
ups and record data. There are even apps to record data
and draw more attention to the ever growing problem of
marine debris.
18. PROJECT AWARE
COMMUNICATION
The take home message is that every time you go to the
beach everyone should be cleaning up just a little.
Lifestyle changes are where the major changes happen.
19. CHANGING CULTURES
The goal of project is that through keeping beach clean
ups simple and speeding the word of importance that
everyone will change their culture to be a culture of
prevention and constant action!
Editor's Notes
There are millions of divers who dive for Project Aware each year across the globe and even more that do shore clean ups. The goal of these clean ups is to not only clean up the beaches but to collect data on what is being found in the oceans. This ways the divers and community alike can help to avoid putting more in!
We did not find many strange items, more clothing than we were expecting.
This is a world wide movement to communicate and educate about what is going on in our oceans both above and below the surface. It is one of the few underwater marine debris data collection agencies.
This beach has clean-ups on it after just about every major storm and there is tons and tone of debris that has to be removed. Once while Calvin was cleaning up at the beach there were four underwater mornings that washed up from Japan. They traveled all the way to this beach. It is not just what is going to go in the ocean but what is already there coming back up on land and needing to be dealt with properly.
One of the things that we did was learn about how the information we are providing in these surveys is helping to create change on larger levels. The goal of project aware is that everyone does beach clean ups every time they go somewhere. It is not a once in a year event. This is every time you go somewhere it is a clean up effort, every little bit counts. If we only clean up when it is clean up day, what good does it do? Every time you go to the beach, it should be cleaner when you left than when you came.
On our clean ups we found, this varies a bit from the international cleanup
Communicating with social media and various tracking applications allows for the data to be recorded and used to help promote change at higher levels. It is also allowing us to these same social media and technology to bring awareness to how big the issue really is.
There is no one day that will fix the ocean, it is lifestyle changes and constant efforts that make large scale change truly possible.
