“By 2050, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish in the ocean.”
Reef Watch, an Indian NGO based in the Andaman Islands, has been working on marine conservation since 1993. One of their more recent projects focuses on conservation along the coast of Karnataka. Karnataka has a broad coastline of over 320 kilometers and is currently facing many coastal issues, including improper land use, overexploitation of natural resources (fish, sand), effluents from industries located on or near the coast, plastic litter, and loss of marine life.
You may have heard shot in the dark stories of a whale stranded on a beach in southern India, yet these strandings happen more than we know and are quite harmful to marine megafauna populations, of which many are endangered. Reef Watch, with the help of the Karnataka Forest Department, aims to tackle these issues hand in hand to not only save coastal communities but also to help marine life thrive in an area that can be restored! Using a large-scale, low-cost, and holistic approach, Reef Watch’s Karnataka program’s main objectives include:
- Conserving the vast number of marine megafauna that are often found stranded on the coast.
- Conserving their environments and the coasts through clean-ups and dune restoration