As the holiday season ends SBM
Kenya Bank has joined hands with
other stakeholders to redouble their
efforts in Sea Turtle Conservation in
Diani Beach through beach cleanup.
The beaches bore the brunt during the festive season as visitors flocked the shores contributing to plastic and littering that have a negative impact on the marine ecosystems.
To ease garbage collection in Diani Beach and to maintain a clean environment, the SBM Bank donated a turtle shaped waste disposal structure.
The bank is keen to extend Diani’s foothold as one of the cleanest beaches in the world.
The country’s rich marine ecosystems face various threats ranging from rapid population growth and at the same time increased fisheries exploitation.
Others are illegal fishing and loss of mangrove cover, coupled with global environmental threats such as climate change and increased development pressures which bring habitat degradation.
The bank is spearheading Turtle conservation efforts.
The country has five endangered turtle species: Green Turtle, Hawksbill Turtle, Loggerhead Turtle, Olive Ridleys Turtle and Leatherback Turtle.
It has also adopted five turtle nests and donated equipment that have increased the efficiency of turtle conservation activities.
The initiatives have yielded over 441 turtle hatchlings.
“Improving waste management at the coastline is a strategy to reduce and manage marine debris along the Coast that will not only help to decrease entanglements and ingestion by marine animals while improving coastal habitats and the lives of communities in these areas,” SBM Bank Kenya Coast regional manager Anthony Muchoki said.
During the beach cleanup, 172kgs of plastics and 47kg of glass were collected from the Diani coastline.
“The exercise has been quite successful and as we do this, the main reason is to conserve marine life and more especially conservation of turtles,” Muchoki said.
He added that turtles don’t survive in an environment with garbage as plastics kill them.
Beachgoers were advised against littering the beach and urged to deposit their waste in the disposal structure to keep the area clean.
“Every time we clean up the beach, we keep the plastics away from the turtles it means that we are going to conserve more turtles and more marine lives,” he said.
“Diani Beach attracts a lot of tourists. Therefore, we have to keep it clean so that we can keep the hotels going, tourists coming and creating employment for our youths and the people of Diani at large,” he added.
Diani Turtle Watch manager Dempsy Mai said they are involved in sea turtles nestling, rescuing and responding to dead turtles. Beach cleanups he noted help to address the problem of marine litter, especially plastic waste.
“The plastics that we litter in the terrestrial world sometimes ends up in the ocean. Unfortunately, turtles confuse that plastic matter for food and they end up consuming them and clogging their digestive system,” Mai said.
He further said necropsy on dead turtles found bits of plastics in their stomachs.
“Plastic is a problem; it is a threat to the feeding habits. It is also a problem for them to find a place to nest because a lot of plastic debris brought in by the ocean is also littered in places sea turtles are nestling,” he said.
The public was advised against the use of single-use plastics on the beaches to reduce plastics littered in the beach environment.
Maji Beach Boutique Hotel assistant manager Evelyn Mutuma urged
beachgoers to be mindful of the marine ecosystem by not littering.