Baynanza Cleanup 2026

On April 11th, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Miami Waterkeeper, Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, City of Miami Parks and Recreation, and Miami-Dade County to lead the 44th annual Baynanza cleanup at Margaret Pace Park and Pace Picnic Island. The Baynanza event has been a long-running cleanup in South Florida, where everyone from local organizations to the general public are encouraged to attend one of various cleanups at many sites throughout South Florida. To start our day, we met with our partner organizations checking in 75 volunteers while handing out gloves, pickers, and buckets before spreading out in the park, with some volunteers boarding local vessel Island Queen headed for Pace Picnic Island. Throughout the morning, our amazing volunteers explored both areas in search of any and all man-made trash, finding the shores inundated with exorbitant amounts of plastic, glass, and wooden debris as well as broken boat parts. By the end of the morning our team of volunteers had collected over 350 pounds of trash from the park and 420 pounds from the island for a combined total of over 770 pounds of trash! Removing such massive amounts of trash has massive impacts both for us as well as for native seabirds and the marine species that call Biscayne Bay their home. Our efforts this weekend even entailed the rescue of an injured laughing gull that was then taken to Pelican Harbor Seabird Station for care. We are extremely grateful to participate in such monumental collaborative cleanup opportunities, and we offer a huge thanks to Miami Waterkeeper, Biscayne Neighborhoods Association, City of Miami Parks and Recreation, Miami-Dade County, and the crew onboard Island Queen, as well as our incredible volunteers for joining us, and we hope to work together again soon.

Marine Debris Tracker is a data collection app that allows the general public to contribute to an open-date platform and scientific research by recording the different types of litter, specifically plastic pollution, that they find in either inland or marine environments. Marine Debris Tracker was developed by the University of Georgia’s Jambeck Research Group, which SeaKeepers worked with in 2021 when the Jambeck Research Group collaborated with Ocean Conservancy to assess Miami’s plastic waste management, known as a Circularity Assessment Protocol. SeaKeepers again assisted the Jambeck Research Group’s Circularity Informatics Lab in 2022 with another Circularity Assessment Protocol in the Florida Keys. The researchers of the Jambeck Lab use the Marine Debris Tracker app to record their data, and with citizen scientists also using the app, more data can be collected in different areas. Using Marine Debris Tracker at our cleanups involves community members in creating a bigger picture of plastic pollution, and provides the means for new scientific findings to be generated as well as for effective local legislation to be informed. SeaKeepers is excited to be incorporating this app at our cleanups and continue our mission of coastal education, protection, and restoration.