CBT's Youth Intern, Reflects on her Beach Cleanup Experience

This summer, CBT's Youth Intern, Janessa, has been supporting us in a wide range of projects across the organization and also participated in initiatives hosted by other local non-profits. One of our goals was to offer her the opportunity to experience diverse types of work as well as acquire skills and knowledge in many different fields. Learn about her time with Surfrider Pacific Rim where she helped remove debris from a local beach. 

Beach Cleanup with Surfrider Pacific Rim

During the summer, Tourism Tofino and Surfrider Pacific Rim coordinate weekly beach cleans called Washed Up Wednesdays. Surfrider’s mission is to protect the world’s oceans and keep it enjoyable and fun, and beach cleans are a fun way to take part in protecting the ocean!

As part of my intern experience with the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust, I got to help with the beach clean-up at Cox Bay. At this event, I picked up trash and learned how to collect data that identifies the types of trash found on the beach. We mostly found sanitizing wipes, cigarette butts, clothing, broken plastics, and Styrofoam. It made me feel sad and disappointed about how people treat this beautiful beach. I was even more surprised nobody on the beach stopped and asked me what I was doing or asked if they could help keep our beaches clean.

When I’m on the beach I enjoy listening to waves crashing down and feeling the nice breeze. During the beach clean, I took some photos of drops of water on the leaves which reminded me of Tinker Bell and being a kid again, it looked really pretty. I started taking photographs when I was around nine years old and have enjoyed it ever since. The beach has lots of beautiful things to take photographs of it was a great way to spend my day, cleaning the beach and taking photographs.

I would like to ask all people visiting the beach to please properly deal with their garbage by taking it home with them or using a garbage/recycle bin at the beach, and if you see someone else’s trash, please pick it up or join a locally organized beach clean. If everyone did this, we could keep the earth and animals safe and keep the Tla-o-qui-aht Territory looking beautiful so that everyone can enjoy it for generations to come.

- Janessa Frank, CBT's Summer Youth Intern