It all started about two years ago, when the Sau Bay Resort & Spa started doing beach cleanups on our own property. The beach cleanups then expanded into cleaning up the mangroves near our resort. As part of our commitment to the international Green Fins program and our status as a PADI Eco Center, we actively promoted beach cleanups as part of our every day activities, often inviting our guests to participate.
In 2024, we expanded our initiative to bring the concept of beach cleanups to our nearby village, Nawi. The idea of beach cleanups seemed foreign, and students welcomed us to their village to teach them about the importance of trash removal in the oceans and shorelines. On Library Day, we held a classroom session teaching the students about the dangers of trash ingestion and entanglement, followed by a whole school trash collection event along the Nawi Village shoreline.
Then in late 2024, our bartender Lui, who is our beach cleanup champion, reached out to his friends at Nawi and Dakuniba villages to see about finding a local champion at the villages to conduct independent beach cleanups. Since that time, Nawi has already conducted weekly beach cleanups, lead by Tony and Dee. Their efforts, which have resulted in the removal of at least 50 kg of trash already, have made a marked difference in restoring the beautiful shoreline at the "doorstop" to their village.
Dakuniba also has started with their own independent beach cleanups, and Lui is now working to get additional villages like Kioa and Vunikura to participate. The next step is to start documenting the many kilograms of trash that are being recovered.
A huge THANK YOU TO LUI for getting this initiative underway, which has found real momentum!
