OVER 100 volunteers, including government employees, picked up litter at the Old Man by the Sea in a cleanup activity facilitated by Island Keepers CNMI on Saturday and Sunday, March 25 to 26.
“We are very glad and thankful to all the volunteers who participated in this year’s cleanup. The turnout is amazing, and we received a lot of support from community members,” said Noriko Baidya, co-founder of Island Keepers CNMI.
This was the second year that the non-profit group organized the cleanup of one of the island’s popular tourist destinations.
This year, they collected more than 10 bags of trash, mostly marine debris, Baidya said.
“We collected more picnic trash last year,” she added.
The staff of the Division of Coastal Resources Management also took part in the activity and collected data.
Baidya noted that there were still no trash bins in the area.
“We understand that it may be difficult for government agencies to send staff to clean this place on a daily basis given the steep trekking path,” she said.
As for their group’s cleanup activities, she said they are an opportunity for community members to give back to Mother Earth.
She said their group has been picking up trash and cleaning up tourist destinations across Saipan since Oct. 2021.
Baidya believes that community members should help their government maintain the island’s cleanliness and beauty.
“We should all stop littering and illegal dumping. And we should help remove marine debris, including micro plastics, from our shores. These plastics don’t rot but they break down into pieces. Once they are too small, the water carries them and the fish feed on them. We then eat the fish which puts us at risk of consuming micro plastics,” Baidya said.
Some of the volunteers who cleaned up Old Man by the Sea over the weekend pose for a photo.
