5 MIN READ
06-02-2026
Cleaning the Shores of Sembulungan Bay
Dika, 4ocean Jembrana Content Correspondent
When local fishermen reported that waste was once again accumulating along the shores of Sembulungan Bay, the 4ocean Java Beach Team knew it was time to return.
Led by Beach Team 2 Captain Darys Eka Setiawan, the crew organized a cleanup mission to one of the bay’s more remote stretches of coastline. Reaching the area would not be simple. Due to the long distance and difficult land access, the team planned to travel by boat instead.
Before departure, the crew carefully prepared sacks, ropes, weighing scales, and personal protective equipment. Once everything was loaded and ready, the team headed to the dock and boarded a 4ocean vessel bound for Sembulungan Bay.
The journey across the water offered views of the bay’s natural beauty, but upon arrival, the reality onshore quickly came into focus.
Plastic cups, paint cans, styrofoam, bottles, and other debris were scattered along the coastline. What should have been a pristine shoreline had once again become a collection point for waste carried by tides, currents, and human activity.
Without delay, the team began a shoreline sweep, moving from the southern end of the bay toward the north. Empty sacks gradually filled as crew members collected waste piece by piece from the sand and coastal vegetation.
Some debris was easy to spot. Other items required far more effort.
Plastic waste buried beneath the sand and trapped between bamboo debris slowed the cleanup process. Crew members often had to dig, loosen, and carefully pull waste free before it could be removed. The challenge added time to the operation, but the team remained focused on clearing as much of the shoreline as possible.
After roughly three hours of cleanup work, rows of filled sacks lined the beach.
As the midday sun reached its peak, Captain Darys instructed the team to begin loading the collected waste onto the boat. The debris was transported back to the dock, where it was weighed before being hauled to the 4ocean Java base for sorting and processing.
By the end of the operation, the team had removed 876.5 pounds of waste from Sembulungan Bay, including 675 pounds of plastic waste and 201.5 pounds of mixed waste, filling a total of 40 sacks.
Among the items collected were plastic packaging, plastic bottles, plastic cups, used paint cans, styrofoam, and various other forms of marine debris.
For crew member Sigit Jupriyanto, the cleanup highlighted a difficult truth about the source of the problem. “The saddest part is not seeing the beach covered in waste, but realizing that most of the trash comes from human habits themselves. Nature has always provided life for us, and it is our responsibility to learn how to protect it, not continue polluting and leaving scars along every coastline and ocean.”
Behind every filled sack was a reminder that ocean pollution often begins far from the shoreline. Waste discarded in rivers, left behind on beaches, or generated through everyday reliance on single-use plastics eventually finds its way to places like Sembulungan Bay.
The ocean becomes the final destination for choices made upstream.
That is why cleanup efforts are only one part of the solution. Reducing single-use plastics, properly disposing of waste, carrying reusable containers, and making small changes in daily habits all help prevent debris from reaching the ocean in the first place.
For the 4ocean Java Beach Team, each cleanup is about more than removing trash. It is about protecting coastal habitats, preserving natural beauty, and helping ensure that places like Sembulungan Bay remain healthy for future generations.
Every sack removed from the shoreline is one step closer to that goal.
