海岸美化
Since 2020 Churamura started bringing the community together to clean the local coastline in order to keep the nesting sea turtle mothers and hatchlings safe from debris and reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean which they may ingest.
Now after 6 years of monthly cleanups, we are Okinawa’s biggest volunteer community of passionate international citizens,
Ocean trash and ghost nets are some of the biggest threats to sea turtle survival. As Okinawa beaches are crucial sea turtle habitats, our work ensures that they remain clean and free from dangerous debris that could entangle or be ingested by sea turtles.
Ghost nets / Ghost gear is the lost, dumped or abandoned fishing nets or ropes that we find around the reefs of Okinawa, destroying whole coral ecosystems, entangling precious wildlife and even causing desertification of the ocean floor, preventing important sea grass beds from flourishing. Due to the technical and sometimes dangerous nature of Ghost net / Ghost gear removal, we do not allow the public to join us on these missions. They are costly and mostly overlooked by volunteer groups and conservationists.
Okinawa Ghost Net Busters team was formed in 2022 and quickly came to recognition as one of the nation’s leading teams in the field. Occasionally this gear washes in from overseas but most of it are the remnants of local mozuku seaweed farms. These nets are expensive and labor intensive to dispose of responsibly, so many are often abandoned hoping they are not discovered.
Our team conducts underwater surveys and located dumping hotspots, then raises funds to charter boats and specialized equipment to pull them out as gently as possible to reduce impact on the surrounding ecosystem.
Currently we are researching ways to upcycle them into useful materials and products.
