Exuma Land & Sea Park, January 22, 2022

Sailing Hubby & I knew we wanted to get involved in giving back in our early retirement and thus far we had expected our opportunity to come in the form on hurricane relief (which had not happened yet).  Instead, we had something else smacked us in the face.

One of the cruiser’s runs a charity called www.fishingforplastic.com

Bill and Angela recruited fellow cruisers to do a massive beach clean-up effort for the Land & Sea Park.  They have only 3 rangers and limited volunteers to keep up with a massive park system.  There are 32 parks in the Bahamas, and they manage all the Exuma Islands which has the largest and oldest.  It is also known as the strictest as a “no take zone.”  There is no internet, no trash, no grocery, or much civilization but there is abundant nature which is unmatched.

We spent the morning with just Ron and I and we gathered roughly 5 200-gallon trash bags of trash off 5 separate beaches.  Everyone spread out and covered all the beaches in the island.  I swear I found the body bag from Jimmy Hoffa.  In total there was 821 pounds of trash, so it was significant, and we then sorted is all into glass, aluminum, and plastic/landfill. 

At that point it would be transferred to Nassau where it would be either recycled, burnt, or landfilled.  The craziest thing the group found was an octopus trap used in Europe which has broken off their line and travelled across to be caught here from one of the storms.  Angela said they once found a message in a bottle and contacted the family of and 11-year-old boy who sent it out.  Very cool and I hope we can do more of this.  It’s amazing when you “put yourself in the path” what opportunities arise.  Are you in the path?

Fun group of crusiers to spend the day with

The amount of plastic was incredible

Park warden bringing in the load.

After a very hard morning on the sun, we relaxed in the afternoon.  I attempted to just float off the back of the boat but there were two circling 6-foot lemon sharks that continued to get closer, so Ron instructed me it was time to get out of the water.

We attended a cruisers beach sundowner happy hour that evening, and I spent time talking with the park ranger.  He said there are “host boats” who can sign in through the Bahamian Trust which runs the park to help them enforce the no take rules and keep poachers from fishing or trashing within the park boundaries.  Hmmm, more opportunities?