Miami Beach Cleanup with Temple Beth Sholom

On Sunday, February 22, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Temple Beth Sholom for a Mitzvah Day beach cleanup. This year, Temple Beth Sholom hosted their 30th annual Mitzvah Day, organizing multiple social justice and community service events around Miami for temple members to sign up for. We were met on the sand at 21st Street on Miami Beach by 20 volunteers, including four Junior SeaKeepers! After a safety briefing and gathering their protective supplies, our volunteers set out to scour the beach, shallow water, and the edge of the dunes for trash. We found a lot of larger items, such as clothing, pieces of wood, and glass bottles had accumulated in the dunes, where they were likely dumped. Along the sand and the shoreline, we found tons of plastic cups, aluminum cans, plastic straws, bottle caps, plastic cutlery, and cigarette butts. The majority of this trash was unfortunately located by the beachfront properties of many of the hotels, where beachfront food and beverage service was clearly resulting in a lot of litter that was not being picked up. In just one hour, our volunteers picked up over 41 pounds of trash, mostly consisting of small plastics and food and beverage containers. We also found some larger items like a long rope and a mesh beach toy bag, which could very easily result in animal entanglement and suffocation. We are so grateful to our volunteers for their hard work today, and to Temple Beth Sholom for their partnership!