Underwater Cleanup of Bay of Bengal in Saint Martin Island
Partner: SEMAC
Duration: 2019-2022
Saint Martin’s Island is one of the most popular destination for the tourists. But the present mode of tourism is not ecofriendly and the numbers of tourist influx surpassed the carrying capacity of the island ecosystem. Tourists throw their waste material into the sea directly that affect negatively the marine environment and its biodiversity. Marine debris resulted from human mis-acts also hampers the natural food -chain and pyramid, the process by which the seagrass/ green algae and some other micro-organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water nutrient.
To keep the natural marine ecosystems, function intact and maintain healthy environment of islands biome, Isabela together with Save Our Seas (SOS) has been implementing under water cleanup program regularly since 2004.
The major output and impacts of the underwater cleanup operation are: physical removal of solid waste dumped around Saint Martin’s Island and make tourist/community aware about the consequences of their ignorance in waste disposal. Saving corals/inter-tidal beach from waste-born pollution and physical damages is also an important result of the cleanup and waste management action.
