On July 27, 2019, HUMAN IN LOVE(HIL) conducted underwater and beach clean-ups, environment protection campaign, and monitoring activities in the Mijo port, Namhae, Gyeongsangnam-do province. A total of 110 people, including the HIL Search and Rescue and volunteers, have participated in the activity on this day.
There were some surprises in this activity. First of all, we guessed that some volunteers might give up the participation due to the remote location and rain, but many volunteers more than the number of people applied for this activity in advance joined us, not only from Namhae, but also from Jinju, Sacheon, Changwon, Busan, Gwangju, Seoul, and even Daecheong-do island. We could feel the passion for a clean sea!!
Also, chairman of the Namhae Gun Council, chief of fisheries cooperatives in Namhae, chief of the village, chief of fishing community in Namhae, and chief of the village also came to the scene to thank the participants and provide watermelons and beverages. The Korea Coast Guard managed maritime transport for the safety of divers. The person in charge of the Marine and Fisheries Division at the Namhae County Office pulled up the underwater garbage with all his might. In addition, Mijo elementary school provided an educational place and Mizo Diving Shop offered some diving equipment. We could proceed the activity smoothly thanks to the active cooperation of the region like the above. Thank you!
The South Sea was pretty clean compared to other coasts, but there were a lot of marine waste in the places hard to access. On this day, we have collected 31 dumped tires, bicycles, dumped fishing gear, ropes, pipes, plastic baskets, fishing lines, and clothing in the water of the Mijo port and around 2,500L of marine debris such as Styrofoam, plastic bags and plastic containers on the beach.
The team for campaign launched an environment protection campaign, which was targeted to tourists, on the Songjeong Solbaram Beach. There were a lot of people, who sympathized with the marine waste problem, more than our expectation and a total of 113 people expressed their intention to refrain from using single-use items and to take back all the waste they made on this day. After participating in the campaign, a child picked up floating plastic bottles while snorkeling and proudly showed us the collected waste. All the team members were delighted with the child’s action.
Meanwhile, we shared the results of collecting marine debris on this day with the public through the application ‘Litterati’ to make more people empathize with the marine waste problem and help find solutions. Anyone can see it on the Ritterati Explore Map (https://map.litterati.org/globalmap/).
This activity was sponsored by the HIL family members, netizens of Happybean, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Hansalim Foundation sponsored. And, the Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation provided marine environment education to all the participants. Thank you so much to everyone who has been the driving force of our activities!
The next clean-up activity will be held on the Han River in September. We look forward to your continued interest and participation in ‘Making a Clean Ocean Without Waste’ of HIL. Thank you!
