Fishermen from Rasi Ngomeni area in Magarini Sub County, Kilifi County have called on the government and environmentalists to consider cleaning of the sea instead of concentrating on beach cleaning alone.
Mr Stephen Katana, the chairman of Kichwa Cha Kati Beach Management Unit (BMU) said that liners and fishing nets were destroying corals and fish breeding sites three miles inside the ocean and that there was need for cleaning of the sea to protect the marine ecosystem.
The fishermen said this when they joined residents in a beach cleaning exercise where more than ten tons of plastic waste was collected at the Rasi Ngomeni beach.
“It should not be beach cleanup exercises but we should also consider sea cleaning because that is where the real damage is. The fish breeding sites have been destroyed by the plastic wastes which get entangled in the corals inside the sea and that is where the fish breed,” he said.
Mr Katana added that the most affected fish species by the plastic waste in the sea was the sea turtle that consumes the dirt as food hence they end up being choked and die before being swept to the shows.
Residents of Rasi Ngomeni said that the beach cleaning exercise in their area was the first one of its kind and that they started the exercise after some residents exhibited strange diseases which they linked it with consumption of poisoned or contaminated fish.
Mr Francis Karanja, the chairman of the Rasi ya Ngome youth group, the residents claimed that the plastic waste was being left behind by big ships and trawlers and were swept to the shows by the waves.
“Almost 90 percent of our people are fishermen and their livelihood depends on the sea. We have in the past about twenty dead turtles at the beach,” he said.
He added that 20 people got sick and were diagnosed with throat cancer, a thing they said emanated out of consumption of contaminated fish.
Mr Birya Kalu, a resident, said that some waste material discarded in the sea were poisonous and expired drugs thrown in the sea far away from them.
“This waste is not from our community but they are swept to our beach by the wind and ocean currents. The sea has been turned into a dust bin and the sea distributes it to different shows. Some fish even swallow bottles of expired drugs and we end up eating the same fish hence the weird illnesses,” he said.
Gongoni ward Member of County Assembly (MCA) said that the initiative that has started at Rasi Ngomeni will extend to other areas along the 20 kilometers beach line in the area.
“We are inviting partners so that we can save the marine ecosystem from destruction by plastic wastes that end up in our beaches,” he said.
