SeaKeepers Monthly Morningside Park Cleanup

Miami, Florida
July 13, 2024

Overview

On the morning of July 13th, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society hosted our monthly cleanup at Morningside Park in Miami. We were joined by 44 volunteers who quickly spread about the beachhead as well as the greater park to remove debris and prevent trash from finding its way into Biscayne Bay and the ocean. Morningside’s shores are covered in narrow crevices between rocks as well as large-rooted mangrove systems, so removing the finer trash and microplastics from these areas can be difficult but is critical to saving these ecosystems and keeping them healthy. Our volunteers were also able to collect data to be shared with scientists on the most common types of trash through the use of citizen-science app Marine Debris Tracker. After just two hours of hard work, we had removed more than 200 lbs of trash from the park, leaving behind a cleaner park for people and animals to enjoy as well as a healthier ecosystem. These mangrove-covered coastlines play a paramount role in storm surge mitigation, managing coastal erosion, as well as providing a habitat for young fish and other species to grow away from oceanic predators. We give a huge thanks to our volunteers for joining us and for their incredible work, and we look forward to hopefully seeing some of them at future events!

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, 43% of volunteers participated in using the app to record data.

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