Monthly Morningside Park Cleanup
Miami, Florida
March 17, 2024
Overview
On Sunday, March 17th, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted a cleanup at one of our regular locations, Morningside Park. We were joined by 29 volunteers who set out to clean as much of the park as they could, including its rocky shoreline and mangrove roots that separate it from Biscayne Bay. While most stayed on land, some took advantage of our partnership with Morningside Watersports and headed out on kayaks to remove trash from the water and nearby picnic islands. Our volunteers brought back endless bags and buckets full of trash, most consisting of food and beverage packaging, bottle caps, cigarette buts and straws. All of the trash collected added up to over 105 pounds, an impressive amount considering the amount of small, lightweight items removed. Removing this debris from our communities prevents it from becoming marine debris that can kill our local marine life via entanglement and ingestion. The majority of the items collected were plastic, and by correctly disposing of it we are preventing it from breaking down into microplastics which heavily contaminate our bay. We are so grateful to all of the volunteers who came to do their part and we look forward to our next cleanup!
Outing Goal
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, 48% of volunteers participated in using the app to record data.
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