The Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources in American Samoa says almost half a tonne of rubbish has been cleared from the territory's second biggest wetland area.
Alice Lawrence says the two-hour clean-up last week was part of the village of Leone's initiative to clean up and beautify its coastal area.
She says villagers filled one hundred jumbo rubbish bags, picking up hundreds of glass bottles and cans, pieces of metal and wood, and large debris such as old tables and windows.
She says now its up to the village to maintain the wetlands area itself.
"We've been talking to the village Chiefs and the Mayor and they're very keen for the village to get involved on a regular basis as well. So we're kind of doing this first effort to remove a lot of the big stuff, to help with all the agencies. But the idea is like we're not going to come every week, and we're doing this big effort and then we want the village to kind of continue and help keep their village clean, we're just helping them to start with."
