“Our sleeves are rolled up to keep our beaches from rubbish to provide a safe nesting ground for sea turtles. We advocate for a profound involvement in keeping our waterways free of trash and hazardous debris for our healthy oceans and thriving marine life.”
These words inspired Ernesto Macasaet, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee head, as well as the employees of Grand Regal Hotel to volunteer and contribute to maintaining the biodiversity conservation park in Punta Dumalag.
The activity was held on the hotel’s 17th anniversary celebration on August 8, 2015.
Fermin Edillion, the Community Relations Manager of Davao Light and Power Company that manages the Cleanergy Park, gave the group information on the importance of maintaining the biodiversity conservation facility.
He said there is a need to protect the beachfront since it the nesting ground for Hawksbill Turtles which is considered an endangered species. Coastal clean-up is necessary to maintain a healthy environment for nesting, while planting mangroves proved equally important to protect the coastline.
The first activity intended to make the group understand the importance of mangroves in the marine ecosystem.
Mangroves are crucial for the coastal areas as they are valued as “protector of the shorelines” or the buffers between the land and sea. They play an invaluable role as nature’s shield against cyclones, ecological disasters.
The second activity gave the group a richer understanding of their contribution to the protection of a healthy ocean.
The importance of oceans come so many ways, from broader-scale things like regulating climate, to sustaining us with the basic elements of life. Half of the oxygen in the air we breathe is produced from it and the water we drink that also nourishes every living organism. More importantly, our beaches are not only meant to helping complex coastal economies, but also serves as a frontier of this essential source, support ocean health. They are the habitat and nesting grounds for an important ocean wildlife, the sea turtles.
True enough, the group witnessed the sad plight of a Green Sea turtle rescued recently and now under observation at the facility. It was confirmed that the turtle excreted plastic twice already, which posed danger to the health of the animal. This provided a concrete example of how dangerous the rubbish floating on our waterways can inflict to the turtles.
Merely an hour of scouring over the shoreline of the eco-park, the Grand Regal Hotel volunteers gathered more than 10 sacks full of litter composed mostly of plastic materials, rubber shoes and sandals, canisters, fabrics, bottles, and even a heavy electronic material made of thick glass and metal. The third activity, the releasing of Hawksbill turtle hatchlings, will have to wait, as the eggs had yet to hatch. Releasing the hatchlings would be the ultimate experience to finally see Hawskbill turtles released into the ocean.
Still, the two activities done by the group already provided them a substantial insight on why there is an urgent need to protect our oceans for the benefit of mankind.
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