Aquarium of Niagara staff and members of the community met on the shores of Lake Ontario at Fort Niagara State Park this past Saturday for the aquarium’s annual community beach cleanup.
With more than 60 volunteers on hand, many from the Lewiston-Porter Key Club, two hours were spent walking the lakeshore picking up trash, scrap metal and other debris.
The cleanup coincides with the American Littoral Society’s International Coastal Cleanup, a coordinated effort to clean up hundreds of miles of beaches across New York state. In addition to simply removing trash, volunteers also collect data on the types of debris collected.
From litter as small, and frequent, as discarded cigarette butts to larger items like a damaged inflatable kayak, the group removed hundreds of pounds of trash from the lakeshore.
While it is a great collective accomplishment to remove so much, the cleanup does serve as a reminder of the importance of environmental stewardship. As aquarium educator Autumn Syracuse says, “Nature, unfortunately, doesn’t have a janitor that’s going to make sure there’s cleanup at the end of the day.”
Anyone looking for more information on conservation steps they can take at home or for more information on the aquarium’s conservation efforts can visit: https://aquariumofniagara.org/conservation/