by Ronna Sweeney, KUAM NewsMonday, March 10, 2008 Subscribe to Ronna's newsfeed
Staffers at Underwater World are helping the community to promote recycling and conservation. The creation of the "Blue Crew" started last August as a way to try and spread the message of conservation to Guam. But before that could happen, education coordinator Jenn Farley says the company took a hard look at what they could do in house to become more eco-friendly.And that meant expanding their existing recycling program. She explained, "Now we recycle cardboard and all paper products that we can and we recycle aluminum. We contribute to the iRecycle program and our cans go back to Simon Sanchez High School." Underwater World is also working hard to go paperless with nearly all of their daily operations being handled electronically. But besides company wide recycling efforts farley says the main purpose of the Blue Crew is education.Farley continued, "They go out and they participate in our Free Outreach Program where we go out to the local schools and talk about conservation initiatives and marine science topics and they're all themed around a conservation message." Underwater World is also one of the only places where rehabilitation of marine life is happening locally.Right now the Blue Crew is trying to rehabilitate a green sea turtle named Dizzy for a possible re-release one day. "We're trying to start a sea bird shorebird rehabilitation program so we can take in injured sea and shorebirds, let them heal and send them back out into the environment. That's another mission of the Blue Crew," Farley said.Farley says though Underwater World has been active for years in recycling and conservation, the Blue Crew is really just a new idea to try and get more people on board. She said, "We have staff members that come and go and they go off to college, and we hope that when they leave here they leave with that interest in marine science and that value about protecting and conserving ocean resources."Farley also notes that eventually Underwater World is hoping to expand the Blue Crew by initiating local school children into the group.