Going to beaches is my favourite past time whenever I am free. I love to watch sunset from there and enjoy the turquoise blue color of the water. The sound of the ripples of the waves energises me but at the same time when I see plastic bottles and cigarette butts on the seashore it makes me think about the marine animals who can easily ingest these hazardous objects. As you all know cigarette butts are harmful for us. But what many people don?t realise is that it is not only harmful for us but also marine life. People who leave cigarette butts on beaches don?t realize the fact that marine life can get harmed. Because marine mammals like dolphins are at the top of the food train, and because they have the most blubber which is where toxins concentrate, they build up the highest levels of contaminants. The effect of these contaminants on marine mammals include: tumors, immune system breakdown resulting in outbreaks of viruses, abnormal growth, and reproductive disorders.

Fortunately, I got the opportunity to put my concern into action. With the support of my brother, who is also a Tunza ambassador, I associated with more children and youth like me and participated in beach clean up drive.

This event was focused on cleaning up cigarette butts from the the shore. As the activity started and the all the members started arriving. My brother and I gave a short speech on why cleaning up cigarette butts was important to do. 

We were all divided into groups of 5 and allocated areas for them to clean. Each team was given a certain spot to clean up and then meet on the starting point. To make it interesting we made a game in which whichever team collected the most cigarette butts and plastic, would get a present. This made all the children exuberant to do the task they were told to do. 

When we had collected enough we all assembled at one point and put whatever we collected into a basket. The winners were judged on the weight of their bags and we made sure only cigaret butts and plastic was collected. We then let the winning team sort out all the waste collected into the right bins. The event was ended by a few short speeches by some children on their experience about the activity.