Back to School Beach Party at The Wetlab

Overview

On Saturday, August 19th, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a cleanup at Margaret Pace Park, one of our monthly cleanup locations. We had 13 volunteers join us to collect as much trash as possible from the park’s grassy areas, as well as the rocks and mangroves on the shoreline. Margaret Pace Park is a popular location for many people to recreate on weekend mornings, and we were excited to see how many local people were enthusiastic to join us. Unfortunately, the park’s proximity to the coast allows for all garbage that accumulates to enter Biscayne Bay, especially after many days of rain. Over the course of the cleanup, our volunteers filled 6 trash bags with debris, accumulating to 52.8 pounds of trash! Among the items collected, bottle caps and plastic fragments were the most common. The size of these pieces of debris makes them particularly harmful to marine mammals, fish and birds that may ingest them, which is why we strive to clean coastal areas where litter can easily be washed into the bay. We are so grateful to all of the volunteers who joined us to leave Margaret Pace Park a little bit cleaner.