Two island children sit in front of the Old Man by the Sea, where a concerned citizen and the Rotaract Club of Saipan will conduct a beach cleanup on July 20.
BRENDAN Fisher, a concerned citizen, has partnered with the Rotaract Club of Saipan and is organizing a cleanup at the Old Man by the Sea beach this Saturday, July 20, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Volunteers are welcome to join the cleanup, but they should bring gloves, water, and appropriate clothes to hike into and out of the trail that leads to the Old Man by the Sea beach. Meet-up happens at the trail in Talofofo.
Fisher said during a recent trek to the beach, he saw trash, which “clashed” with the natural beauty of the area.
“It was a first time for [my hiking partner and me] to see the Old Man and we had a great time hiking there not knowing what to expect. When you pop out of the woods you can see the Old Man right away and he is very recognizable. With other rock formations you have to use your imagination to see it, but not with the Old Man. What threw us off a little bit was all the trash that had washed up on the beach. For some of the pics that I took I had to point the camera up a little higher than normal to keep the trash out of the pics,” he said.
Fisher believes that the Old Man by the Sea sits on some kind of “natural funnel for floating trash.”
“The trash on the beach is floating in from offshore,” he said. “I bring it up because in some of the other articles I’ve read that have a comments section, people get worked up thinking that kids and tourists have been leaving trash behind. This would also probably be the last beach that would happen on as it’s somewhat of a harder hike out there. You have to be a little dedicated to go to this beach.”
He said Saipan and Tinian are “nicely clean” and he would like to help keep it that way.
For more information about the cleanup on Saturday, call (670) 588-3033 or send messages on Instagram to Rotaract Club of Saipan (@rotaractclubofsaipan).
