Be the change you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi
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New West City's biggest beach San Carro is famous for its beautiful ocean view, surfing contests and the number of tourists visit the place every year but one thing which is neglected the most is the amount of waste which is dumped here in the ocean.
I want the professor's recommendation letter for college and he wants my social work status to go up and therefore I ended up volunteering to clean the beach.
" You! What's your name?" The group head points at me.
"Sera," I say as I roll my eyes.
"Okay! Sera and Lucas will be in charge of the area near the rocks." He orders and then turns towards the other group.
"Hi!" Lucas extends his hand and I shook it. "Let's get to work."
***
"I can see something near the ocean shore." I turned to Lucas who was changing his gloves for the third time. The beach is pretty much like the city's dumping ground, everyone just assumes that the whole beach is a dustbin and they can throw wherever and whatever they want.
"Go check it, while I clean this side." I nod and walks toward the rocks.
When I was near it I smelled something disgusting, like a corpse rotting; following the smell I ended up near the low cliff area. Gasping in horror, I could not believe what the view holds for me.
Hundreds of dead fishes floating in waste, their bodies bloated and blood oozing out. The birds were feeding on them. I ran back to Lucas who was digging out plastic bags from the sand.
Watching me running towards him, he stood up and waved. "Lucas, there--fish,--" I say pointing in that direction; not being able to explain what I just saw, I grabbed his hand and ran to the group manager.
I told him everything, the dead fishes, the plastic waste, the stench, all of it. He immediately took out his cell phone and punched some number.
Lucas in the meanwhile gave me a water bottle, the sight of plastic flashed the image of those dead fishes in my mind. I felt disgusted for using plastic, I felt pathetic for being a part of a massacre, I felt annoyed that there might be more incidents like that, I felt ignorant for ignoring something like this.
***
The next day's newspaper headline was revolving around the dead fishes. The whole city was in a rage and the beach was closed down for proper cleaning. People came up for the NoPlastic campaign but the loss was already done.
'WE LOST THEM'
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Author's Note: My entry for the National Geographic #PlanetOrPlastic contest.
Over 100 million marine animals are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean. Currently, it is estimated that there are 100 million tons of plastic in oceans around the world.
If the above data is not enough to Ban Plastic and for people to refuse it, then I guess we are not only losing environment but humanity too.
|The name of places and people is totally imaginary but the dead fish incident is, of course, real|
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