We recently joined forces with a awesome bunch of like-minded environmentally conscious folk in Quepos. Together we built this beautiful Sailfish made of reused plastic bottles. The entire construction process took more than 180 hours, so working over 15 days. The sculpture consists of over 3500 bottles, 3000 caps, and is an impressive 13 meter in length and weighs 200 kilos.
All this plastic for the art project was collected from our region around Quepos. Much of it is recyclable plastic…however, did you know that plastic cannot be recycled in Costa Rica? In fact, Costa Rica only has the capacity to recycle glass.
All other collected recyclables like plastic, aluminum and paper, have to be exported for recycling with current figures showing that only 9% of plastic collected for recycling is actually recycled. Much of our recycling ends up in landfills in far corners of the globe or burnt, so releasing toxic gases. This is why recycling is no longer the solution for our plastic world..we find alternatives to plastics.
REDUCE, REUSE and REFUSE!
This beautiful sailfish represents a hope for the future of Quepos. Many hands joined together to make it a reality, working together under the blazing sun and the occasional rain storm. Art projects like this are a way to reuse plastics and raise awareness of the plastic problem. Thank you to the Comite Ambiental de Quepos and to the artist, Alban Corrales for letting us work on this amazing project.
With the start of the new season rapidly approaching we are going to kick it off with one of our Dive against Debris. These are our fun underwater cleanups that are organized every other month. They help to combat the build up of trash underwater in our favorite dive sites in Manuel Antonio.
For the first one of the season we thought we would kick it off with a big bang. As a special incentive to encourage our eco warriors, in addition to helping the ocean, you get the chance to win two Jack Johnson concert tickets in San Jose the following weekend. How awesome huh?
So…Jack Johnson?
In case you didn’t know, Jack Johnson is a singer-songwriter from the US who is active in environmentalism and sustainability. Very often with a focus on the world’s oceans. We are teaming up with his social action network “All at once” along with other non-profits in Costa Rica including Raising coral and Operation rich coast to be able to offer this opportunity to our eco warriors.
As well as our underwater cleanup there is a coastal clean up and an exciting music event. At each of the events there will be the chance to win a pair of tickets.
So, what do you need to do?
If you are an avid ocean diver and want to join us on our underwater clean up you sign up by sending us an email here. In addition you will need to pay a donation to our foundation. If you have all of your own dive gear the donation is $32 ($30 + 5% Paypal fee) if you need to rent dive gear it is $42 ($40 plus 5% paypal fee) You will then need to arrive at the Marina the morning of the 2nd November for the start of the event. Places are limited for the underwater clean up so signing up soon is advised.
If you are not a diver but still want to make a difference you can sign up for the coastal cleanup or join us for the event at Selinas. Both are that same day in the evening where there will be live music and the raffle to win the tickets.
We look forward to seeing you at the start of our exciting season.
Want to sign up? You can sign up here with your contact details and donation.
An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash-most of it plastic -is dumped in the world’s oceans every year. In the united states 10.5 million tons of waste is generated a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it.
Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million marine animals and birds in the Pacific Ocean. Over half this plastic is less than 60 mm- or a quarter inch. These tiny plants and animals are the base of the ocean food web, and animals consuming plankton from herring to whales are ingesting plastic. The plastic doesn’t go away, it just gets smaller. Approximately 70% of plastic sinks to the bottom where it sits like a time bomb, waiting to be assimilated.
As part of our ongoing mission to save our oceans we run underwater clean ups every month. We rotate around different dive sites in our area so as to maintain a good overall sweep of our local area. Once completed we register the debris that we find into an international database where the information is used to look at overall patterns of marine debris to track sources.
We welcome all volunteers on these clean ups and if you would like to come and join us clean up the ocean then you are welcome to. Dates for the clean ups are listed on our calendar along with our other events so please contact us to participate.
We ask for a minimum of open water certification to take past.
