Why a P.E.I. man is making trees out of garbage

A Murray Harbour man is concerned about how much garbage is appearing on White Sands Beach in Murray Harbour on thesouth eastern portion of P.E.I. in Kings County.

Jim Aquilani said he collected enough trash to fill two half ton trucks over three weeks and it wastaken to the dump Tuesday.

"It's a little disheartening but I feel that there's hope because if one person could clean up that much stuff then if everybody picks something up when they were down here," said Aquilani.

I was quite surprised that a three quarter mile beach would yield so much garbage.Jim Aquilani

He walks the beach several times a week and decided to start piling the trash around a tree branch. He said therewere some balls of netting two meters wide and one meter tall.

"I was just amazed at how big it got and how much stuff there was," he said.

Garbage everywhere

Aquilani said he's lived in the area for 11 years and said everywhere he goes on P.E.I. walking and kayaking there's trash.

He added people should pick up trash, even it it's not theirs and teach children to as welland respect where you live.

"I was quite surprised that a three quarter mile beach would yield so much garbage," said Aquilani.

He said he's found gloves, boots, and oil and gas cans and fishing gear including bait bags, line, and netting. Aquilani said the fishermen that helped him haul away the garbage Tuesday said some of the netting was10 to 20 years old.

Aquilani said he's not blaming fishermen though and said it's everyone's responsibility to clean up.

Everyone's responsibility

"They have to make a living. I certainly don't begrudge them that. And there's only so much you can do," he said. "They have to cut lines loose every once in a while, I mean you know stuff happens. It's a hard job out there It's just we need everybody to pitch in to clean it up."

"My mom always told us to pick up one or two pieces and if everybody did that then there wouldn't be any more trash so we have to start somewhere," he said.

'It's going to be really gross'

"In 10 years if that kind of garbage continues to you know collect it's going to be, it's just going to be crazy. The beach is going to be really gross," said Aquilani.

CBC spoke with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in the Atlantic region about the rules on garbage. A spokesperson told CBC it's actually governed under the Canada Shipping Act with Transport Canada.

However, officials said that fishermen are required to haul in any equipment at the end of the season and the department has just recently discovered and recovered 150 lobster fishing traps officials believed were abandoned.

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