World Ocean Celebration Beach Activation Cleanup 2026

On the morning of June 6, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society joined and partnered up with Blue Scholars Initiative, ARTSail, and Clean Miami Beach to host a Beach Activation Cleanup at Miami Beach as a part of the World Oceans Celebration week. This year’s World Ocean Celebration is an immersive 10-day event that showcases inspiring activities, environmental awareness, art installations, and community engagement, all dedicated to celebrating and protecting our one world ocean. This beach activation cleanup served as the culmination of the first week of events, bringing together a multitude of different organizations with the aim of both engaging with the local community from all over Miami Beach and of course removing as much trash as we could from the shoreline. We started our day by setting up our table and speaking with more than 50 people visiting the World Ocean tents, teaching them all about SeaKeepers as well as testing their marine biology knowledge with our Creatures from the Beach activity. Once the other groups had arrived, it was time for us to get started cleaning the beach. Joined by 109 volunteers, we handed out gear and set out around the beach, surrounding parks, and even the dunes in hopes of cleaning up these beautiful ecosystems for many critical marine species as well as us to enjoy. Our Educational Outreach Manager, Jack, joined the team from Clean Miami Beach to sort out all of the trash onto several large tarps with the goal of displaying both some of the strangest finds as well as the most common types of trash populating the beach. After just over an hour, our hardworking volunteers were able to collect and remove more than 532 pounds of trash from the stretches of Miami Beach. Volunteers agreed the most common sights were bottle caps and cigarette butts, which continue to plague the beaches of South Florida with bits of microplastic as they break down for years on end. Bringing everyone back together, our team along with the other partner organizations thanked our volunteers for their work, participated in a final discussion on what we found, and encouraged all of our attendees to continue to support events in celebration of World Oceans Day all over Miami. We thank the volunteers once more as well as the amazing people of Clean Miami Beach, Blue Scholars Initiative, and ARTSail for partnering with us to host such an incredible event and we look forward to celebrating World Oceans Day with them for years to come.

Photographs credit: Logan Fazio and World Ocean Celebration Miami