Today was our last day in the British Virgin Islands. We had completed all of our diving for the week and we decided to spend the day by cleaning a beach near an airport. When I arrived at the beach, I was surprised by the overwhelming amount of trash in the area. Fishing nets, buckets, boat parts, cans, bottles, and even a surfboard were scattered all over the sand and seaweed (which was strewn throughout the beach). With all this trash, ‘ripe for picking’, we set to work, trash bags in hand, and began picking up everything we could find. The most common trash in the area were the fishing nets, and most of the time we had to dig and move a lot of sand around so we could actually pick the nets up. After an hour and thirty minutes, we had finally completed our job. Everyone picked up an average of two to three full trash bags, and as a result, the beach looked completely clean. The only trash remnants were a few small pieces of plastic and objects that were stuck too deep in dirt or sand to be pulled to the surface. Following the beach clean-up, we were given the afternoon off, which I spent by swimming and snorkeling at the beach. To end the day, we are going to have a farewell dinner. Overall, my experience in the BVI was a positive one. I went out of my comfort zone and dived to depths of eighty feet, I saw fish one would usually see in an aquarium, and I gained a new respect for marine life. When I return to Dallas, I’m hoping to continue expanding my knowledge on marine life and maybe begin diving more often, especially as I get older. With this, I end my blog, goodbye BVI.
