This February Paulita Bennett-Martin presented to an international audience at the Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM2016) in New Orleans. Over 4000 guests attended from across the world to cover all areas of Ocean Sciences. Paulita presented Plastic Free Belize, People, Plastic, and Pollution in a developing Caribbean nation. Using participatory methods, she mapped 255 meters of coastline with community members in Belize, and collected 11,166 pieces of marine debris, of that over 93% was plastic. Further, Paulita discussed major themes in community response to participatory mapping and campaigns, "many people in Belize are used to participating in cleanups and data collection, which is a positive example of community engagement". Yet, the student also voiced concern, “I fear making coastal clean ups, alone, to common an event may desensitize the public to a phenomenon we need to seek preventative solutions for”. Paulita’s presentation mix of quantitative GIS data and synthesis of human experiences received strong positive response from the audience at OSM2016.