Eleven-year-old Cherry Holmes is walking along the beach with her big sister and a friend. Wearing gloves to 1 their hands from any sharp objects, they are 2 a large rubbish bag with everything from fishing line and dirty plastic bottles to old shopping bags.
The girls are taking part in International Beach Cleanup Day. It's an annual event that helps people see the 3 of keeping the world's oceans clean and sea-life safe. 4, a lot of rubbish never goes into a rubbish bin. Instead, it blows on the wind, and travels down rivers to the sea.
Rubbish isn't just ugly — it can be 5 for animals that live in the water. Sometimes animals get caught up in rubbish and die. Sometimes they eat rubbish that poisons them. Sea turtles, for example, often mistake plastic bags for the jellyfish they love to eat.
"When they first ask us to take part, I felt terrible! We had to 6 rubbish!" says Cherry. "But when I got there I found it was really 7! I liked meeting all the other people and improving the 8."
This one-day event sends out an important message: "We are all connected to the ocean. We can help keep the ocean clean by 9 rubbish in the right place. Take the extra time to place rubbish in the bin instead of throwing it on the ground, and 10 everything we can to reduce pollution," say the event organizers.
