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Your gifts helped community members come together to pick up 2.75 TONS of trash!
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It's estimated that millions of marine animals die from plastic pollution annually, leaving the fight to save them in our hands. The solution is to keep it from getting through to the waterways. International Coastal Cleanup Day was created to mitigate and bring awareness to the alarming amount of waste that goes into oceans every year.
In Central America, plastic pollution can be extremely severe during the rainy season, when litter is washed down the rivers to the coasts. The rainy season is happening now. But givers like you supported us, and for the 14th year in a row, we rallied local communities to remove garbage from beaches and waterways.
Last month, our team coordinated 22 cleanups across the coasts of Nicaragua. In total, 700 participants removed 2.75 tons of trash! From Junior Rangers to staff to inspired community members, everyone came together to pick up trash that would have otherwise gone in the ocean. Our staff were energized and cheered at the growing local interest in keeping our oceans clean and healthy.
Plastic made up 65% of the trash our team collected. Your support helped protect beautiful marine life, and is helping change local paradigms by educating the younger generation about consuming less plastic and better managing waste. Thank you for our donors for supporting community efforts to stop ocean pollution!
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Thank you for making our seas trash free!
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Anna Chévez has been part of the Paso Pacifico team since 2016. At the beginning, she assisted with Proyecto Noble, which included education and health programs, and a library in Ostional, Nicaragua. Running the library, she displayed leadership abilities and got to know each child who came in. Anna gradually took on more responsibilities in our Junior Ranger program for children ages 8 through 12, and has coordinated that program since 2018. After COVID-19 hit, she has at times taught lessons by phone while coddling a malfunctioning work computer (which will soon be replaced, thanks to many generous donors like you!).
In addition to working with the Junior Rangers, Anna also puts into motion public events that build awareness, such as the International Coastal Cleanup, the Christmas Bird Count, and an art contest (closing October 30) coordinated with the Regional Mesoamerican Parrot Festival. Anna did an exceptional job bringing on new partners this year while ensuring the events included an educational component.
Anna's family has been part of the Ostional community for generations. She has one daughter. In her spare time, she loves to take care of her garden or spend time at the beach with her loved ones. We are so glad to have Anna’s passion and determination to maintain a strong Junior Ranger program. Thank you for supporting Anna's work!
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The International Coastal Cleanup is a global event internationally coordinated by the Ocean Conservancy with many partners. Paso Pacífico was the country coordinator for Nicaragua, and many partners from local communities were key to our success. We send a special thanks to the municipality of Cárdenas, the biology department at the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, León (UNAN-León), and the following businesses and organizations:
Thank you to all who participated! Each partner listed here made a difference for nature.
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For many of you, our InvestEGGator project is familiar. Between the GlobalGiving reports and newsletters, we’ve kept you posted on our efforts to monitor sea turtle trafficking.
Our executive director Dr. Sarah Otterstrom and conservation scientist Dr. Kim Williams-Guillén were recently interviewed for the CBS show The Henry Ford’s Innovation Nation with Mo Rocca. Last week, our episode, which focused on the InvestEGGator and other interesting tech, was aired!
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We couldn’t be more thankful to donors like you who have supported us on this journey. From science articles to our GlobalGiving campaign to being on this show, many of you have been with us all along, and for that, we are so grateful.
The Innovation Nation segment was filmed at our office in Ventura, California, and at the Henry Ford Museum near Kim's home in Michigan, where the eggs are produced. Want to watch our segment? Check it out below!
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Click or tap to watch our segment!
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PARTNERS MAKE IT POSSIBLE
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The Centro para la Investigación en Recursos Acuáticos de Nicaragua (CIRA) of the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua, Managua (UNAN-Managua) is running a long-term study to monitor water quality along Nicaragua's Pacific coast. This month, Paso Pacífico team members like staff biologist Osmar Sandino supported lead researcher Dr. Katia Montenegro Rayo and other CIRA personnel to take surveys at six sites on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, from Potosí in the northwest to Ostional in the south. Donors like you made this field work possible.
The team sampled water, sediment, and more to better understand the health of the environment and collect data that will allow them to see changes over time. Of particular interest were indicators of ocean acidification and the amounts of microplastics on the beaches and at various depths off the coast.
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Thank you to Dr. Katia Montenegro Rayo and the entire CIRA team for working with us during this important study. This sampling is part of a four-year regional project with the Network for Monitoring Coastal-Marine Stressors in Latin America (REMARCO), with 18 Latin American countries participating. We look forward to working with the CIRA team again in November, with your support.
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Thank you to all the photographers who contributed photos used in this e-newsletter. These include but are not limited to Bruce Taubert, Ana Lopez, Bone Events & Tours, and Paso Pacífico rangers Anna Chévez, Jairo Coronado, Osmar Sandino, Winel Ruiz, and Sarah Otterstrom.
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