Several AU students took part in the 23rd annual International Coastal Cleanup last weekend on the banks of the Potomac River.
CAS professor and Department of Environmental Science Chair Kiho Kim supervised the group of approximately 30 AU students as they tackled garbage and debris that lay on the river shoreline by the Fletcher Boat House near Georgetown, according to an AU press release.
Kim helped the National Research Council come out with a report on the current measures that are being taken to reduce garbage and debris in bodies of water. The report concluded that the actions that are being taken are insufficient, and more work needs to be done. The National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Medicine sponsor the National Research Council.
"By the latest estimates, 80 percent of what ends up in the oceans comes from land," Kim said in the press release.
Kim said plastics and garbage that end up in bodies of water could hurt the animal life living in it.
"Plastic can lacerate intestines. Animals can choke, or their intestines can be blocked up so they can't eat any more," he said in the press release.
By the end of the day, the group was able to clear more than 60 bags filled with old fishing lines, ropes, bottles and other various forms of litter.
-ANNA TUMAN
