Creating trash-free seas is becoming more challenging each year because of the steady stream of plastic flowing into the world’s oceans. In 2015, the journal Science estimated between 5 and 14 million tons of plastic annually are found in the ocean.

Stemming the tide of plastic flowing into the ocean is a necessity for the more than 2.6 billion people who rely on the ocean as a primary source of protein.

Leave Only Footprints, the initiative adopted by Gulf Shores and Orange Beach in 2015, requires visitors to remove beach tents, umbrellas, beach gear, beach toys and trash at the end of the beach day. Any gear left on the beach will be collected by the cities and disposed.

In the past 28 years, more than 1.5 million pounds of trash have been collected during Alabama’s Coastal Cleanup, taking trash away from the coast and potentially keeping it out of the water. Throw something into the Gulf of Mexico today and chances are it will still be there tomorrow. Even something as simple as an apple core takes two months to break down in the ocean blue. Other items have a much longer life and can do damage to marine life. An example is fishing line which may take 600 years to decompose.

Take your trash with you, put it in the cans provided, and Leave Only Footprints. Your children and the future thank you.