U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary holds event overlooking the Missouri River

The Coast Guard Auxiliary Division 085-33, 8th Western Rivers, held its second quarter board meeting on July 24,2021 at the Narrows Park in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The meeting was an outdoor event overlooking the Missouri River. We had expected 30 officers to be in attendance but a triple digit heat index kept a couple of officers from attending. I did have the opportunity, at the meeting, to distribute a good amount of NAMEPA materials supplied by Lyn Harris of NAMEPA. I also had the opportunity to talk about NAMEPA and its importance to the Coast Guard Auxiliaries mission of Marine Environmental Protection. I talked to officers in attendance about the misconception that the Midwest doesn’t contribute to Marine Pollution in our oceans. A great many Midwesterners believe that since we are, what they call landlocked, that we are not contributors to marine pollution. They fail to understand that all of the streams and rivers within each state flow into the Missouri or Mississippi rivers. The waters, and what they transport, eventually find their way to the Gulf of Mexico. We must continue to make people aware that one single item of litter missed here, can soon join others, to add to an already massive worldwide problem costing lives of marine life and costing millions of dollars in clean-up efforts every year. It is all about education. With the help of organizations like NAMEPA and The coast Guard Auxiliary, someday that Midwestern attitude will go away.