Today the MantaWatch Interns had a chance to collaborate with a local organisation called Trash Hero to clean up the coastal areas of Labuan Bajo. One of the aims of Trash Hero is to increase the awareness of local people about their environment. We were given a short briefing about how to separate the recyclable and non-recyclable trash, and then we rolled up our sleeves and got to work cleaning up the shoreline around Labuan Bajo Ferry Harbour.

There was so much trash! Instead of sand and rocks, it was almost like the shore was made of glass and plastic. We were happy that several local fishermen also joined us to clean up the coastal area. Local communities have an important role to play in reducing the impact of trash to these coastal environments.

Trash is a major problem around the world. A large percentage of the trash disposed of on land ends up in the ocean, washed by the rain into rivers and out to sea. This trash can can be a major problem for marine ecosystems, and affect many creatures including manta rays. By Reducing, Reusing and Recycling we can all help to conserve manta rays.

Hard word carrying heavy trash

We sorted the trash, with the recyclables going to be processed and the non-recyclables transported to a land fill site. In total we collected more than 650 kg of trash!

Trash Hero carry out regular clean ups to increase the awareness of tourists and local people about the importance of keeping the ocean clean. Hopefully, more people will be brave to keep the trash zero and become a trash hero.

We were all exhausted after the hard work this afternoon, but we enjoyed the new learning experience. We spent this morning in the classroom, learning about manta ray surveys and data management.

Sacks of trash cleared from the shore