Celebrate World Oceans Day, Clean Up SouthCoast Beaches

Coming from the Ocean State, I take pride in Rhode Island’s beautiful ocean views and picturesque areas that hug the shoreline. With temperatures reaching the 90s this week, the beaches from Rhode Island to the SouthCoast are sure to be jam packed and the ocean will be filled with swimmers trying to escape the heat.

To keep our coastline thriving, let’s remember to keep our beaches clean as we celebrate World Oceans Day.

The Ocean Project began in 1997, and since then has grown from a handful of founding organizations into the world’s most extensive network for advancing conservation and solutions-oriented action for this planet. For the 17 years, The Ocean Project has celebrated World Oceans Day on June 8, meticulously conducting research, and sharing it with the public in order to keep “the lungs of the earth” happy and healthy. National Today points out that “the majority of the oxygen we breathe comes from the ocean,” so why wouldn’t you want to make sure it stays clean?

Yet every year, I see empty bottles, Styrofoam coolers, and plastic left behind on our beaches after a day in the sun. The tide comes in, grabs the litter, and the ocean becomes a giant, wet trash can for the people who didn’t care to dispose of their litter properly.

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Water pollution won’t be fixed overnight, but there are helpful habits we can adopt that will keep the beaches we love even more beautiful than they are now.

For World Oceans Day, adopt the “We are blue, tell two” challenge, as described by National Today, by wearing the color blue and sharing two facts about ocean conservation with a friend.

Looking to be proactive? Join Tiverton’s Litter Committee today as they clean up Fogland and Grinnell’s Beach, and don’t be afraid to start a cleaning crew of your own on the SouthCoast.