After spending a beautiful week on a quiet beach in Florida, watching snapchats of drunken ragers and people shotgunning drinks on packed beaches, I am reminded that this is not our city, these are not our beaches and not our waters. We stand on the beach and claim it as our own and say that we aren’t leaving and demand that we take as many selfies as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good candid beach photo any day, but I also love that the sand on my beach was so clear that you could find the tiniest shell and see where tiny feet had run into the ocean.
When looking at the photos of cute swimsuits on those packed beaches, I noticed that there were large amounts of this picture that I was refusing to see. Bottles that were broken, solo cups cracked and washed up, forks and styrofoam lying next to a seagull that was desperate for any kind of food. Now imagine, all that we can’t see. What has already been pulled into the waters and is now killing the animals that have inhabited it for far longer than we have. A vacation shouldn’t be to go to a beach that isn’t ours, lay on sand that isn’t ours and pollute an ocean that isn’t ours just to use a hashtag of #springbreak2k16.
To me, that vacation doesn’t sound like a vacation at all. Instead it sounds like a nightmare. We are destroying a beautiful place and leaving nothing for others to see and enjoy all for the sake of a week in a different state trying to get a tan and get free drinks. Think about it like this: if everyone could be responsible enough to throw away a least a part of their trash, there would be less of it laying on our beaches. Now imagine if everyone took the time to throw all of the trash away. We as a population would be lessening our carbon footprint and creating an experience that was more enjoyable for everyone and not destroying Mother Nature who is already fighting us with everything she’s got!
Miami’s local news posted an article entitled "Spring Break Tourists Flood Beach with Garbage" in which Torres talks about the disgusting condition of the beach and how the city is doing as much as it can to control the insanity of the crowds piling on to the beach. The picture below is only the beginning.
With the presence of Ultra Music Festival, the multiple weeks of spring breakers and St Patrick's Day, the beach is in ruins. Volunteers can only do so much and there is so much that can't be cleaned up. As the tide rolls in and out, so does trash. It is a never ending cycle and a constant struggle for multiple beaches. From the videos and photos I've seen, South Padre in Texas, Panama City Beach in Florida, Destin Beach in Florida and Gulf Shores in Alabama are just a few of the large spring break stops that have noticed an upswing in attendance, alcohol and trash. Some cities have made attempts to spot the overloading of spring breakers by banning alcohol. Gulf Shores is just that beach. They stated that it was time to take action and began on Wednesday of this past week by banning the consumption and possession of alcohol on the beach. This was started in the hopes of protecting the visitors, the citizens and the beach itself.
Now, with all of this information, here is where it is up to us. Respect the cities we visit. Remember that we are visitors and that we are responsible for the sand we stand on. See a piece of trash and pick it up. Remember that to fix the problem, we must be willing to be apart of the solution. Now, after spending time on a beach and seeing how workers spent hours cleaning it, I can only imagine how other beaches are handling it. It is up to us to leave it cleaner than we found it and make the beach an enjoyable place for others to visit!
#KeepMBClean
