Poster abstracts and manuscripts from the Third International ...

Baird, David
70
Sources of Beach Debris: Great Guana Cay Abaco; the Bahamas
Clean Islands International, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada
In April 1992, a dozen environmentalists and solid waste
professionals gathered on the island of Great Guana Cay, a ten
kilometer long barrier island on the northeastern edge of The
Bahamas. Their purpose was to work on a number of issues ranging
from alternatives for an impending dump closure to a Center for
Marine Conservation documented beach clean up. Several community
awareness and school education projects were incorporated into
the week's activities.
Follow-up visits were made to this island in October 1992 and
April 1993, where among the activities, additional documented
beach cleanups were carried out. Although not a true scientific
study, there are some empirical views on the origins of beach
debris at this location. The main beach faces northeast, onto
the open Atlantic Ocean, exposed only to open ocean currents.
The harbor beaches, along the southwest-side of the island front
on the more or less enclosed Sea of Abaco.
In the documentation, we observed a significant reduction in
debris encountered after the first. clean up, indicating.
primarily, a long term accumulation on the -ocean beach. The
harbor beach saw a major sustained reduction purely as a result
of local awareness. The residents stopped throwing old boat
motors into the harbor, and hired a caretaker to groom the beach
of incidental litter. The school children placed litter
containers through out the community and along the path to the
ocean beach, thus capturing that which might otherwise become
eventually marine debris.
Our poster display describes the work that the Clean Islands
International has carried out on Great Guana Cay. Included are
photographs and relevant documentation.
Bormanis, Peter and Inara Briede
Some Aspects of Water Pollution in the Riga Gulf and the Baltic
Sea
Keep Latvia Tidy Foundation, Jurmala, Latvia
In this paper, the Keep Latvia Tidy Foundation analyzes not only
traditional and civilian sources of marine debris (agriculture,
industrial waters, vessels, etc.), but also the rarely mentioned
marine debris of military origin (poisonous weapons sunk at sea;
sea artillery and rocket polygons; after-effects of ignition
bombs blasted at sea, etc.).. Amber searchers, particularly
children, are frequently burned after picking up phosphorous
materials that resemble amber. These incidents occur along the
Latvian coastline which stretches for 500 kilometers along the
Baltic Sea. The coastline is undisturbed, with unspoiled habitat
that few Western countries can imagine. These areas were off