On Saturday, Sept. 24, fifteen people arrived at the Maine State Aquarium to participate in a coastal cleanup as part of Coastweek 2016. After learning about the importance of the task they were about to embark upon, Education Director Elaine Jones equipped them with gloves, trash bags, and a trash data form to record their findings.  

One crew (Jeannie Hamrin, Diane Reed, Judy Hurford, Kevin Emberley and Chris Roy) went to Barrett’s Park, while two crews were dispersed to Ocean Point. The beach crew consisted of Hannah Hills, Byran Hills, Mike Hills, Rachel St. Vincent and Liz Bowe, while the ocean-side drive crew consisted of Dakota Mank, Dominik Mank, Justin Nicholson, Annabelle Nicholson, and Kerstin Suffurian.

Once back at the Aquarium, they had fun comparing and consolidating their “finds” into one pick-up truck. This collection consisted of large quantities of cigarette butts, food wrappers, fireworks, and small pieces of plastic, as well as lengths of rope and mangled lobster traps. Some trash was easy to collect while others, like the old tire mired in the mud at Barrett’s Park, required some work.

Junior environmentalist Hannah Hills was all smiles about the removal of 230 pounds of trash from our local shoreline. This event, as well as her trash exhibit for the Aquarium, created awareness of a global issue - right here at home. The crew of volunteers not only improved the aesthetics of our region, but reduced potential damaging effects to wildlife and the environment. Their data will be processed by the Maine Coastal Program and then entered into the international database by the Ocean Conservancy.

The Maine State Aquarium’s staff and Hannah Hills would like to thank all of this year’s participants for making the clean-up a success. Special thanks are also extended to the Maine Coastal Program for supplying the necessary gear, and to NOAA’s Marine Debris Program for sending activity books and calendars. We hope that many others will join this noble effort in 2017.