By: Mahar Suwandaru (Earth Hour Serang Coordinator)

The beach care action as a coastal environmental education activity organized by Earth Hour Serang this year invited visitors to Bendulu Beach Anyer, Banten, to play while learning. On September 18, with the theme "#BeliYangBaik for the Coast", Earth Hour friends also enlivened "National Customer Day" which falls every September 4 by enlivening positive activities with the surrounding community and visitors. With the aim of reintroducing #BeliYangBaik to the community and tourism visitors to be wise in consuming seafood, Earth Hour Serang hopes that the joint action can increase visitors' sense of caring in preserving the coastal environment. To achieve this goal, Earth Hour Serang conducted socialization on the impact of marine pollution on people's daily consumption.

Tourists were invited to participate in the #BeliYangBaik campaign through their personal social media accounts by uploading photos of beach awareness actions at Bendulu Anyer Beach. The best photo uploaded received merchandise from Earth Hour Serang. Because by uploading the photo, it means that visitors have helped save the environment at Bandulu Beach Anyer. Earth Hour Serang also invited visitors to take part in the #FishingTown Competition through smartphone devices by downloading the Fishing Town game first on the Play Store or Apple Store. Visitors who won this digital fishing competition received merchandise from WWF-Indonesia. During the competition, visitors were very enthusiastic. Fishing Town, a fishing-themed game is a medium to recognize and educate the public about sustainable fisheries practices in the context of Indonesia.

Then the beach care action was closed by installing appeal boards at several points of Bandulu Anyer Beach so that tourist visitors always remember how important it is to preserve the environment around the beach. Bandulu Anyer Beach is one of the tourist attractions that is visited by many people resulting in increased waste volume. Of course, garbage scattered on the coast not only pollutes the environment, but also reduces the aesthetic value of Bandulu Anyer Beach.

Earth Hour Serang Coordinator, Mahar Suwandaru, stated that this activity attracted visitors to preserve the beach environment, one of which was by being careful in consuming seafood. The enthusiasm of visitors was quite good although many were still shy to interact during the socialization. By starting the awareness from ourselves, we can help each other preserve the habitat and the environment.