Paul Johnston
Published Apr 19, 2018 at 8:00 am (Updated Apr 18, 2018 at 10:52 pm)

Making a point: Nash Storey shows off some
of the plastic he collected during a cleanup
at Grape Bay Beach

What started as a school assignment to clean up a beach has turned into a passion for a schoolboy.

Now Nash Storey, 11, is the unofficial caretaker at Grape Bay Beach in Paget.

The 11-year-old, a pupil at Somersfield Academy, carried out clean-ups at the beach with Keep Bermuda Beautiful over his 12-week long-term service and action assignment that began last November.

Nash said the idea for the project came from a personal drive to protect the environment. He explained: “I want to keep the beaches clean because I love them.”

The Paget schoolboy, who lives near the beach, said that he enjoyed swimming, snorkelling, boogie boarding and spending time with his family on the sand.

But he added: “It’s just not very nice to go down to the beach and see trash.”

Nash said some of the items he discovered during the cleanups included shoes, as well as a variety of plastic items, including six octopus pots.

He and KBB — along with the help of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science and the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo — have launched a bid to track down where the pots came from.

The plastic containers are used to trap the sea creatures and can travel thousands of miles from their original locations.

Nash said that while his school project may have come to a close, he had no plans to stop his cleanup efforts. He added: “I feel that it’s a big deal.”

Nash said that the message he was trying to get across to Bermudians was to cut down on their use of plastics.

He added that in addition to promoting the three R’s — reducing, reusing, and recycling plastic — he would like to see Bermuda take a cue from UK supermarket chain Iceland which has banned plastic bags.