A team of scuba divers from Sint Maarten carried out a new cleaning campaign on Saturday, November 19, with the aim of reducing the amount of debris that still litters the island's underwater coastline, five years after the passage from Hurricane Irma.
As part of the island's coastal cleanup project, 12 participants received scuba diving training during the summer months to safely search and recover small and medium-sized debris that remains under the water. This in-depth training ended last October with a specific session given by Divers Against Debris of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).
After receiving the all-clear from the instructors, the 12 divers were able to practice their skills and begin clearing debris in Simpson Bay with the help of dive school boats SXM Divers, Dive Adventures, and The Scuba Shop.
As a reminder, the first coastal clean-up carried out in 2022 collected an impressive volume of nearly 300 kg of debris on the Simpson Bay coastline. It consisted of PVC pipes, roofing and other small debris of all kinds, as well as large quantities of single-use plastics and daily waste.
More than 200 kg of the same type of debris was removed from the seabed, still in Simpson Bay a few weeks later.
Finally, on Saturday November 19, other people still concerned about protecting the environment launched a new eco-citizen clean-up operation with the assistance of the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) Faculty of Medicine, which made it possible to collect 200 kg of additional debris in the same place, in this case in Simpson Bay! _AF
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