Shuyak Cleanup Proves Surprising and Challenging

logo-w-sunburstKayla Desroches/KMXT

A local nonprofit is close to finishing up this year’s marine debris cleanup on Shuyak Island. Volunteers and staff with Island Trails Network kayaked along the shoreline and stockpiled the debris on the beaches there. Director of Education, Outreach, and Marine Programs Tom Pogson says they’ve so far removed roughly 75 percent of the garbage

Pogson says the kind of debris they found surprised them.

It turns out that nets and line had invaded the interior bays and to a lesser degree the outer coast, where many plastic items also washed up.

“Like totes and jugs and bottles and stuff and in between there’s sort of like a mixture of things, but we didn’t expect there to be so much stuff in the interior bays. We didn’t expect there’d be that much variability between two nautical mile segments in different zones. It just slowed us down.”

It’s been a big job, and it’s reaching the end of its run this year. Pogson says they will do the last removal trip Wednesday starting at 5pm. He says they’re still looking for a couple of people to help transport the last supersacs full of debris.

Listeners can find out more about that opportunity and about the Shuyak project by checking out this week’s Talk of the Rock.

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