Wildcoast to Host Mexico's First Ever National Coastal Cleanup

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To counter the growing plastic crisis in Mexico, on Saturday November 1st, WiLDCOAST will launch Mexico's first every National Coastal Cleanup in more than 100 sites throughout the country. WiLDCOAST has partnered with Televisa Mexico's biggest national television network, Promotora Ambiental, the National Water Agency (CONAGUA), the Ministry of the Environment (SEMARNAT) and the National Park Service and other private sector partners to organize this event.

On Sunday November 2nd, WiLDCOAST will be hosting massive cleanups at Playas de Tijuana and at San Miguel and six other sites in Ensenada. Throughout the month of November volunteers in 25 states will clean another 135 places.

"We are very excited to partner with the private sector, the Mexican Government, and other Non-profit Organizations in this historic effort. We hope to make this a yearly event," said Serge Dedina, executive director of WiLDCOAST. "Last year on a surf trip to Guerrero I was blown away by the amount of plastic I found littering remote beaches and point breaks."

On Saturday WiLDCOAST team members will clean beaches in Veracruz with Juan Elvira Quesada, Mexico's Environmental Minister, wrestling sensation, El Hijo del Santo and Veracruz Governor Fidel Herrera.

"Our objectives are to inform and educate about the terrible problem trash has become in Mexico and how it harms humans and the rest of the environment. We also want to introduce the topic of reducing the amount of trash we generate by recycling and reusing or not using plastic bags, plates, and the terrible foam hot cups," said Aida Navarro, WiLDCOAST Wildlife Coordinator.

According to the United Nations, plastic, is killing more than a million seabirds and 100,000 mammals and sea turtles each year. Bottle tops, plastic bags and foam coffee cups can be found in the stomachs of dead sea turtles, dolphins, and seals.

In the U.S., volunteer organizations participate in the annual National Coastal Clean Up Day each September, in which hundreds of thousands of people scour the coastline nationwide for trash, picking up thousands of tons of debris. In Mexico, however, rural coastal communities have almost no support for establishing landfills and eliminating the plague of plastic that is spreading to even the most remote coastal areas.

Mexico's extensive network of rivers carries plastic from cities downstream to the coast. Last year WiLDCOAST visited a remote sea turtle nesting beach in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tamaulipas with our superhero ocean defender, El Hijo del Santo. "I couldn't believe how much plastic covered a beach so far removed from the nearest city," said Fay Crevoshay, Communications Director of WiLDCOAST.

Earlier in the year WiLDCOAST held Mexico's largest ever beach cleanup in Playas de Tijuana, just across from the U.S.-Mexico border on February 9th. Thousands of people from Tijuana and Baja's northern coastline joined together to clean up one of Baja's most heavily used and dirtiest beaches.


For more information and to register to host a cleanup, contact WiLDCOAST at info@wildcoast.net or go to www.wildcoast/net/sitio