DEQ, CRM fish for trash
Three huge tires, an automotive battery, and several bags of cans and bottles— these were just some of the trash fished out by scuba divers from the Saipan Lagoon at the vicinity of the Sugar Dock Saturday morning.
Wearing oxygen tanks on their back, employees of the Division of Environmental Quality and the Coastal Resources Management Office, joined by two volunteers, dived into the lagoon holding trash bags.
When they surfaced from the waters, the bags were no longer empty.
“They say it wasn’t as bad as anticipated, but there was still a lot of trash that’s picked up,” said Steve Harmsen, a teacher at the Oleai Elementary School.
Harmsen was one of the two volunteers who joined mostly DEQ staff in the scuba dive cleanup, one of the activities in commemoration of April as Environmental Awareness Month.
A diver for three years now, Harmsen said joining the cleanup was “a very good cause.”
Edson Limes, a student at the Northern Marianas College, said his reason for joining the activity, besides supporting the environmental cause, was to satisfy a class requirement.
“After the semester, I’m supposed to write a seven-page report,” Limes said.
A boom truck from the office of Saipan Mayor Juan Borja Tudela later arrived to pick up the loads of trash.
DEQ’s Marvin K. Seman, environmental awareness month coordinator, said the activity at the Sugar Dock was just one of the four cleanup locations last Saturday.
Runners of the Hash Harriers club conducted a beach cleanup at the Forbidden Island, while similar activities were also done by elementary students in Garapan, and at the Coral Ocean Point beach area, according to Seman.
