Meet Satya Devi Singh — an Asbury Park and Hoboken resident. She’s no stranger to The Hoboken Girl, and is now making her debut here on The Asbury Park Girl. With summer in full swing, everyone is heading out to the beaches but there is a major problem that affects not only beach-goers but also the environment. The lack of beach cleanliness is a problem Satya has encountered here in Asbury Park. Read on what this 9-year-old Asbury Park resident, Satya, has to say about the beach cleanliness problem on New Jersey beaches.
Photo Credit: Raakhee Mirchandani
Satya shares:
Dear Asbury Park, my name is Satya Singh and I am 9 years old. I really care about Asbury Park because it is my favorite beach and I love swimming in the ocean with my friends. Me and my family have been coming here for as long as I can remember. The ocean is one of the most beautiful parts of nature because it provides fish for us and it is fun to play in.
Now let’s cut to the chase.
I am writing to you about a problem on our beach that has been affecting wildlife and my family and humanity: Garbage. The garbage on the beach is a huge problem. What I have been noticing is all the junk that people leave on the beach, including plastics, beach toys, glass bottles, and aluminum cans. I think that all of this garbage is really annoying. It is damaging the carefully structured ecosystem of the world.
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Did you know that we have produced more plastic in the last ten years than we produced in the previous century? In fact, 8-10 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean each year. I know these facts are true because I do a lot of beach clean-up trips in Asbury every summer! Some of the weirdest things that I have found are dolls, sunglasses, steel water bottles, and even beach toys!
Photo Credit: Raakhee Mirchandani
The ocean is in danger. You should care about this topic because the ocean is one of our major food sources. Scientists say that in 2050 the ocean will have more plastic than fish. We also affect wildlife when we pollute the planet. One of the animals that pollution targets the most is turtles. Turtles are affected in a lot of ways by plastic and garbage, which is why you should not leave all of your garbage on the beach.
Here is a list of them:
- They can eat a plastic straw and choke on it.
- They can suffocate under a plastic bag.
- They can get squeezed to death from a six-pack seltzer/beer. (Why are you looking at me like that? Just because I know what a six-pack beer is doesn’t mean I drink it. I do drink seltzer though.)
- They can eat plastic, get full from it, stop eating food, and then not be able to eat because of the plastic stuck in their stomach.
- They can eat a plastic straw, then the turtle’s stomachs get bloated, and right after that, they start to rise to the surface, making themselves very vulnerable to predators.
And those are just some of the ways that turtles can die from plastic.
I think that you should stop leaving your garbage on the beach because it kills wildlife in the ocean, resulting in a damaged ecosystem around the world. The ocean won’t be able to perform its normal qualities, leading to a life of starvation. Starvation will strike for pescatarians, and even if there are some fish left, they will be full of microplastics. Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that are trying to dissolve, they are also so tiny that they get where plastic shouldn’t be.
You also should clean up after yourself so other people don’t have to do it for you.
Over the years we’ve lived here, there has been lots of plastic in the ocean. Once, I was taking a dunk in the ocean and something hit me in the face. I picked it up, and it was a bottle of Gatorade. The same thing happened to me with a plastic bag, water bottle, and even a pair of socks. This just proves how much trash there is in the ocean. Also sometimes when you are trying to leave the beach, there are just buckets and buckets of beach toys that people just leave there for no reason. This just seems like no one cares about the planet.
What my family does to stop garbage from polluting the beach is:
- We use metal containers for food, if we do get a plastic container, we reuse it.
- Whenever we see garbage on the beach we pick it up.
- We don’t bring any plastic to the beach because it flies into the ocean.
- We use tote bags and paper bags instead of plastic bags.
I hope that this will convince you to limit your use of plastic and help clean up the beach!
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Photo Credit: Raakhee Mirchandani
