Own Your Block Cleanup at Margaret Pace Park

On Saturday, March 7, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Biscayne Neighborhoods Association (BNA) for the quarterly Own Your Block cleanup at Margaret Pace Park. We were joined by 32 volunteers at the park who gathered to help remove trash from the park, including the grass, the mangroves, the rocky shoreline, and the shallow water of Biscayne Bay. This park’s coastal location and high foot traffic make it a hotspot for marine debris, with trash from the park easily washing into the bay with windy conditions. The close proximity of Pace Picnic Island, a popular party island for boaters, causes an influx of trash into the water, which tends to wash up on the coast of the park. After a safety briefing, volunteers grabbed gloves, pickers, buckets, and bags, and headed out across the park to do their part to mitigate this debris crisis. Within two hours, our volunteers had collected more than 140 pounds of trash which was removed from the park and properly disposed of. Thanks to volunteers collecting data with Marine Debris Tracker, we were able to learn that the top items they found were cigarette butts and cigar tips, bottle caps, and plastic fragments. These small items leach chemicals into the environment as they break down, and can easily be ingested by marine life, leading to illness and possibly death. Thanks to our volunteers’ hard work, we know that much of this trash has been diverted from its path to the ocean. We are so grateful to Biscayne Neighborhoods Association for their partnership, City of Miami District 2 Commissioner Damian Prado for his team’s help removing the bagged trash, and to our volunteers for all their hard work. We look forward to the next Own Your Block cleanup and hope to see you there!