Last week The Marine Tech club went to the south end of Wrightsville beach to clean up about a mile and a half of shoreline. The president of CFCC’s Marine Tech Club, Maggie Oxendine, shares what they see the most.
“What we mostly saw was smaller plastics, we picked up a lot of straws, a lot of Styrofoam was there which was surprising, which I didn't think I would see. A lot hidden in the brush, closer to the dunes,” said Oxendine.
Microplastics form after plastic items degrade into smaller and smaller pieces. They pass unchanged into the waterways and oceans where they are consumed by marine wildlife.
“These plastics don't break down. They take between 450 to 1000 years to break down in the environment. The fish that we catch are now filled with these microplastics so we are therefore putting that in our bodies which is bad as well. ”
The Marine Technology club works to be proactive in keeping Wilmington’s waterways clean. Any CFCC student can participate in these clean ups. There are also other organizations doing large scale clean ups within the community as well.
The next Marine Tech Club clean up will be March 5th at Greenfield lake from 11AM-2PM. Non-CFCC students wanting to help with clean ups can join clean ups hosted by Plastic Ocean Project of Wilmington. Cape Fear River Watch also holds clean ups on the second Saturday of each month.