Dear Sir,

My mother, daughter and I came to Bermuda for the first time in early January and we’re about to leave on Sunday.

For the most part, we have been very impressed with the country and the generosity and friendliness of the people.

But one thing has been really upsetting and disappointing: the amount of plastic trash that we’ve found on many beaches.

Since we’re staying in St George, the beach we have visited most is Tobacco Bay.

From a distance, it is stunningly beautiful. But when we first arrived, we discovered the beach was littered with plastic trash, both on shore and in the water. When we would go snorkelling — yes, we’re Canadians, so it’s not that cold for us — there was so much plastic, it was hard to enjoy the reef and the fish.

Most of it seems to be coming from the ocean because there are so few people there at this time of year. Some of it was partially burnt, leading us to wonder if it had somehow escaped from an incinerator. But there were also plastic bags from stores in downtown Hamilton and medical waste such as plastic gloves.

We have picked up a great deal of the garbage, with the support and encouragement of the manager at Tobacco Bay and it’s much cleaner now. But every time there’s a storm, more comes in. We read in your paper about the teen who was leading clean-up efforts, which we were very happy to see. But we think this is an issue that requires more attention, for the health of the fish and the environment in general, but also for tourism and the reputation of Bermuda.

Best regards, PAT JEFLYN AND LAUREN LAPLANTE