I do hate to be the bearer of bad news. Last July I stumbled on loads of bleach bottles washed up on Longbay Beach. I took a month long inventory which tallied over 50 bottles of bleach and notified the DECR of the findings, concerned that they were evidence of illegal lobster catching. Now, nearly a year later, the same trend has emerged. After the windy and unusual weather of last week, the beach has accumulated a great deal of seaweed and amongst it, litter. LOTS of litter. Scattered within all the garbage (mainly plastic), have been these dreaded white squeeze bottles. In two days of rubbish runs I have collected just shy of 50 bottles. However, for one of the first times in the 8 years I have been cleaning up the coastline, I was not alone one morning with my big bag o' trash! There in front of me was not one person, but two, with a giant trash bag between them, collecting garbage on their morning walk. I almost cried I was so ecstatic! This nice couple who were staying at Villa Esencia and I had a chat and they too had been picking up many of these bottles and guessed that they had seen around 15 in addition to mine. Sincerest gratitude to this couple who spent their very valuable vacation time making the Turks and Caicos a cleaner, greener place. I have just spoken to a conservation officer at the DECR and hope that our marine police can determine the origin of these bottles and hopefully prosecute the criminals if indeed they are being used for foul purpose.
