Last Sunday, September 17, 2016 was the International Coastal Clean-up, an event that many here in the Philippines look forward to every year. In fact last year, the Philippines was NO.1 when it came to the volunteer turnout during the event wherein 8 million kilograms of waste were collected. This year's ICC however had to be cancelled for safety purposes and to comply with the Presidential Proclamation that put our country in a state of emergency following recent bombings.

The group I was going to the ICC with was the Ateneo Environmental Science Society, the main environmental organization in my University where I am an EcoLeader for the Blue Battlers, the group focused of marine protection and preservation. So instead of going to the ICC and put our lives in danger, we just had an ICC talk in the campus wherein we invited speakers from the The Plastic Solution and the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines.

The first speaker, Ziggie Gonzales, is part of The Plastic Solution, a group that aims to rid the seas of plastics by collecting all kinds plastic trash, stuffing them in bottles, and using them as building materials for structures to be used by the indigenous people of the area. The second speaker was AA Yaptinchay, from the Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines who talked to us about how marine life in the Philippines is poorly protected and how plastics in our oceans have affected marine life in the Philippines. 

That is why even thought the ICC was cancelled, I am still glad because we were able to have this talk wherein the people who attended where mostly freshmen and were the perfect audience because the event gave them a glimpse of what is happening to our marine environment. Having a speaker who talked about how bad the condition of our seas are and another who talked about what we can to about it was the perfect combination. Hopefully this will push our new members to be active in the organization throughout their stay in University. 

I highly recommend that you just do something similar to this because I have seen with my own two eyes how effective it is. Let's all do our part for our oceans and be good Seatizens!