Trouble in Paradise

While most people associate the Maldives with pristine beaches and world-class dive sites, very few visitors take the time to step out of their resorts and see the other, less idyllic side of the country. In fact, it's even discouraged by everyone from the government to the resorts to mix visitors with locals. With the guidance of several Maldivian gentlemen, I've had the chance to experience the rich, authentic culture of Male' while learning about the numerous social, political and environmental issues the country faces.

I've been staying on the capital island of Male', a two square kilometer concrete jungle home to over 100,000 people. Crowded doesn't even begin to describe it. Vastly different than any city I've visited before, its relative isolation has allowed it to retain a pure, fascinating culture. The population is 100 percent Mulsim, which has been an interesting experience for me, especially being the only westerner in town. Although curious, no one seems too bothered by my presence.

I entered a tea shop for lunch the other day and quickly noticed I was the only female in the small room. A young man happily took my order and seated me at one of the few remaining seats of a long cafeteria-style table. Joined by several dozen Maldivian men, I ate platefulls of kuli boakiba, gulha and papya. Aside from the stares and lots of friendly smiles, life went on as normal in the Dawn Cafe. I found out later that women don't traditionally enter tea shops, as it is a place for men to talk about "man stuff." (Although one woman told me she chooses not to go out of the sheer lack of sanitation- a certainly plausible excuse.) My obvious inablilty to understand Divehi must have posed little threat to their confidential conversations.

Of course I am here as, what my mom likes to refer to as, a "trash ambassador." So in order to seek out rubbish, I took a ferry to a nearby island and scoped out the marine debris situation. And on Vilingili island in the North Male' Altoll, I found the most impacted beaches I've seen so far. From couches to Q-tips, and toothbrushes to toilet seats, I entered a whole new realm of beach cleaning. Here's just a portion of the list of items I collected on 55 meters of beach:

-1 fluorescent light bulb
-11 glass bottles (including 2 empty bottles of Tobasco sauce)
-23 diapers (Maldivians will not throw human feces into a garbage dump, so instead, diapers are traditionally thrown into the sea.)
-25 shoes
-1 twin-sized mattress
-21 cardboard containers of Milo drink
-1 mother board of a computer
-2 glass jars of Nutella
-1 foam cushion
-36 plastic wrappers from instant noodles
-1 wine cork

Although, far more interesting than the items I collected, was the reaction I received by passerbys. As I dragged the ever-growing trash bags along the beach, small crowds began to form. My foreign appearance added to such odd behavior was certainly a sight for curious locals. Seemingly too nervous to approach, they stared from a distance, some even held their children so as to prevent them from wandering my way. Smiling at the crowds, I continued cleaning. Typically, after I've finished cleaning a stretch of beach, I will lay all the trash back out and sort it in order to record what's been collected. So not only did this crazy white woman spend hours picking up trash on an arbitrary beach, but now she's dumping it all back out and sitting down to admire it. As you'd expect, this really seemed to puzzle people.

Finally, a young guy, Makif, who I'd met earlier in the day, approached me and my piles of trash. He laughed as he told me that the whole town wanted to know what I was doing. Even the police had been called. Once he'd approached, the apprehensive crowds became a bit more confident and came to get the story. I attempted to explain myself, although with the language barrier it was tough. The locals laughed as they relayed the explanations they'd developed for my actions: some assumed I was an immigrant worker the government was paying to clean the town, some thought I'd lost something, one woman even bluntly admitted, "we just thought you were crazy." A few volunteers helped lug the trash to the local dump and I set on my way back to Male'. Even if I am remembered as the crazy trash lady, I hope that I was able to leave behind some sort of message that might make them think before tossing their rubbish to the sea.

A message to users to keep the beach clean on the island of Hulhualme

Kids on Vilingili infront of the beach I cleaned

Colorful Male'

If only Barbie could talk

This past week I traveled north into Aboriginal territory in Arnhem Land with an international group of volunteers from Conservation Volunteers Australia. We spent 5 days picking up marine debris along the lovely coasts of the Cobourg Peninsula. Not only was it nice to have a few extra hands to help in cleanups, but I had a great group of really enthusiastic people to spend the week with.

We set up camp along the western-facing coast of Wiligi- a peaceful area where the bush meets the sea and home to loads of Australian wildlife, incredible sunsets, and some of the most stunning starry skies. Walking about 12 kilometers of beach per day, we came accross nets, rubbish, and truck-loads of buoys. The most interesting find of the week was probably a Barbie doll. She appeared to have been through quite a lot- years as a castaway at sea, over-exposure to the bleaching sun and maybe even a bush fire or two. If only Barbie could talk.

Not only was the group proactive, but also quite inventive. Getting creative with the trash we found each day, we established the "Beach Olympics." The events ranged from tree climbing with the hundreds of meters of ropes we collected to a version of the 'truck pull' using a large amassing of buoys and ropes. And afterwards, we relaxed in homemade hammocks made from the derelict fishing nets we pulled in. Not a bad reuse of rubbish.

I also got the chance to go inland for a change. With a friend visiting from Melbourne, we spent a weekend rockclimbing and hiking at Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks near Darwin.

Next stop: A quick stay in Singapore and then a couple weeks in the Maldives

The CVA group sorting rubbish

Identifying nets with Tim from Perth

My average day

Covering new territory with the Circumnavigators Club

If you've ever lost a shoe, it's most likely in Australia

Since my last blog post, I've made my way to the Northern Territory of Australia and have had some really incredible opportunities. This past week was spent on the Groote Eylandt Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria visiting the Anindilyakwa Land Council- an indignenous ranger group that works in association with the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Program attending to the derelict fishing nets that wash up on the shores of the gulf.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect of Groote Eylandt, but was certain it was remote. Each time I mentioned the name of the island to an Australian, I received a very clueless look in response. And the 18-seater hopper plane I took carried 5 other passengers forthe 2 hour flight- most of which appeared to be researchers. Upon arrival, I was picked up by Keith and Navel- two rangers from the Anindilyakwa Land Council- and taken to a small market to gather grocieries before making the hour journey out to the villiage of Umbakumba. This is where Keith and his family live and where I would be staying for the week; a beautiful aboriginal community on the coast with red dirt roads and colorful homes.

At night, I joined the men as they spear fished by moonlight at low tide. Eager for me to try their favorite treats, we caught sea urchin after sea urchin- cracking them open right there on the shore and sucking the meat out raw. A bit gritty with sand, they weren't bad, although I certainly preferred the mud crab and small fish we steamed later.

During the day, I joined the rangers on their beach patrols. We'd drive the coastline in search for nets, stopping to collect and record each one. They use a booklet provided to them by the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Program to identify, when possible, the origin of each net. We'd measure the twine size and mesh size, count the strands, and identify the color as we paged through pages of foreign nets. Most of the nets we collected were trawl or gill nets from Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan. I should note that none of the nets that we were able to identify were from Australian fisheries.

Keith, and another ranger, Philip, also helped me out on a general rubbish clean up of about 2o0 meters of beach. Between laudry baskets, garbage bins, large plastic floats, lighters and light bulbs, the three of us collected nearly 1000 items with a total weight of 31 kilograms (just about 70 pounds). Over ten percent of the items collected were shoes. And I found the most interesting thing I've found so far on my cleanups: a pretty weathered shot gun.

Next stop: The Cobourg Peninsula in Northern Territory, Australia

The 100 shoes and flip flops collected on a 200 meter stretch of beach on Groote Eylandt

(That's about one shoe every 6 feet)

Two ladies taking a stroll through Umbakumba

Philip and I after a clean up on Groote Eylandt

Friendly locals living on the Darwin Harbor

To Cooktown and Back

After a night's stay at The Rocks in Sydney (although I wish I could have had much longer...) I made my way up to beautiful Port Douglas on the eastern coast of Northern Queensland. My next stop was Cooktown- the northernmost city on the east coast- to meet with a group of marine conservationalists. So I rented a car in Port Douglas and started on my journey across the Cape York Peninsula. The first 20 or so miles were on winding roads through lush mountains, which quickly turned to a straight-away two lane road through a very dry, tropical savanna. The dirt was a deep red and the grasslands looked nearly dead, they were so dry. Cruising at about 130 (km per hour, of course) I drove the nearly 300 kilometers north, stopping periodically for pictures and cattle blocking the roadway. With no radio, no cell phone service and only a handful of other cars on the road, I took the time to let it sink in that I was really in Australia. From bush fires to kangaroos and wild horses, I passed it all on Route 81. Even got stopped by one of the infamous road trains, which are semi trucks that can be up to 50 meters long. Although the one in front of me was only about 20 meters long, it was still a trouble to pass.

On the way up, I stopped at a small peninsula known as Archer's Point to do a beach survey. I'd heard it was a "hotspot" for rubbish and quickly found that to be the case. After about 2 and a half hours of cleaning only 200 ft of beach, I picked up nearly 800 pieces of trash, weighing over 10 pounds. Finding anything from plastic chess pieces to flip flops and insecticide cans in every language from English to Spanish to Japanese, I found that most of the debris was plastic and a significant amount was from Papua New Guinea. The sun was setting as I packed up all of my gear and as I ascended the bluff up to my car, I noticed a crocodile lingering in the mangroves. I cringed thinking about how long it had been there..

It was dark by the time I arrived in Cooktown, but it was certainly not hard to find my way around. The town had one main road which deadended into the harbor. The only building showing any sign of occupancy was the local pub, and I'm pretty sure the whole town was there. It doubled as a hotel, so I was able to book a room and buy a beer all on the same tab. After a bit of chit chat and a game of pool, I was off to bed to get up for the workshop in the morning.

Speaking with marine biologists and conservationists from all over Australia and New Zealand, I was a bit shocked by what I was repeatedly told. And I think Queensland's "King of Rubbish" said it best: "the Australian governments don't give a toss about the environment." I heard story after story about devastating environmental issues that the government refuses to get involved with.

Well I just returned from a very packed pub here in Port Douglas to watch the State of Origin Rugby match- the biggest game of the year between Queensland and New South Whales. (Queensland won for anyone interested..) But I have an early morning of diving on the Great Barrier, so I'm off to bed!

Cattle along the roadway
View from Archer's Point where I did my clean up

Black Mountain National Park- basically mountain-size piles of big black boulders

Kangaroo Crossing

Bush fires on Route 81