Moda North Bay Village Cleanup

Overview

On Tuesday, February 11, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Moda North Bay Village for our second annual community cleanup. We were joined by 8 volunteers who set out to look for trash around the island, including the baywalk, the surrounding streets and the nearby parks. Moda is located right on the edge of Biscayne Bay, and residents often report sightings of wildlife such as dolphins, manatees and sea turtles. The proximity to the bay means that keeping this community clean is especially important, as wind and rain can easily cause any litter to enter the water, endangering our marine neighbors. By the end of the evening, our volunteers had removed over 19.2 pounds of trash, mostly consisting of plastic items such as food wrappers, bags, and bottles. We are grateful to all of the volunteers that came to do their part to keep our bay clean, and to the wonderful Moda team for hosting us, and we look forward to our next partnership with them!

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. In this cleanup, 25% of volunteers participated in using the app to record data.