The Environmental Awareness Group (EAG) unveiled its first bird sign at Shell Beach on Monday evening, hoping that it will result in improving the habitats of shore and water birds that frequent Antigua.

The sign is of the Spotted Sandpiper – a small grey wetland bird with a short orange bill. The Spotter Sandpiper sign was designed by Patrick Joseph.

The EAG is part of a group that carries out a Caribbean Water Bird Census and are currently monitoring (6) six sites to gather, among other data, information on birds’ flight patterns and their abundance.

All the signs which will be placed at bird monitoring sites are to assist the public in becoming aware that these are important birding locations. The EAG also hopes that the signs will discourage people from dumping in those areas.

Joshel Wilson, Wildlife Officer at the EAG said illegal dumping on beaches and in mangroves have become too much of a problem to ignore.

“We’ve found ourselves returning to these sites on a monthly or yearly basis and seeing way more trash than we actually picked up the year before or the month before,” he noted.

“Imagine looking through your binoculars, you see a beautiful brown pelican perched on a fridge in the middle of a mangrove or you see a red warbler bathing through trash,” remarked Auriel Hunte, a member of the Wadadli Warblers Bird Club.

The signs were erected in partnership with the EAG, regional non-governmental organization Birds Caribbean and the Antigua and Barbuda Ministry of Tourism and Investment.

Amaya Nicholas who represented the tourism ministry said the agency was happy to partner on this project as the preservation of birds “creates an indirect economic benefit for Antigua”.

Nneka Nicholas, a legal consultant at the Department of Environment highlighted that the bird habitats also provide eco-system services like protection from coastal erosion, preventing excessive wave action, and improving water quality as well as providing habitats for flora and fauna.

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWA)and the Department of Environment play key roles in maintaining pristine bird habitats.

In a missive submitted by the NSWA, it said that each person in Antigua and Barbuda produces almost 4kg of waste per day.

“This is excessive by any standard. Compared to other similar countries within the region, the daily waste per person index is doubled for Antigua,” wrote General Manager Daryl Spencer.

This, he wrote, not only drives the cost of management upwards, but it also contributes to the noxious (harmful) gases and adds to leachate in production during landfilling exercises that can lead to environmental degradation.

All the agencies listed above work together to preserve these bird habitats in an effort to balance economic development and sustainable practices.