Scratch the Surface

Ok, so a bunch of us woke up zero dark thirty, to head to Chalan Pago Bay to assist with the island wide coastal cleanup. Some of us did it for a plethora of reasons such as extra credit for environmental biology or to get the prestigious t-shirt, but I also did it to help community awareness of our island's coastline.
Back in the 90's, my first visit to Pago Bay, I remember the water was so clean and greenish with light brown sand. There were a couple of concrete pavilions that visitors could use to set up a picnic and celebrate the island life with barbecue and brews. Now with the erosion of land being battered by the tropical storms in the late 90's the water decimated the pavilions and limited the area to being used by squatters and local fishermen.
I came to Pago Bay to help with the clean up last year, it was low tide so we were able to clean the left side of the bay. We accumulated about 10 bags of debris. This time it was high tide and some were brave to cross over a huge pile of bamboo to pick up trash. I didn't want to get injured so I stuck to the right and just that patch of land measuring a tenth of mile, our group of four, we alone harvested five bags of plastics, glass and cans.
We didn't scratch the surface, there were hundreds of cigarette butts crusting the top soil and like last year, I left feeling disgusted and weary that I couldn't make a significant difference in my physical efforts. I do hope with this broadcast that I would ignite my fellow classmates to do their part of keeping GUAM CLEAN and GREEN.
Learn more about Pago Bay... http://www.guampedia.com/pago/