SeaKeepers x Turtl Project Morningside Park Cleanup
Miami, Florida
February 10, 2024
Overview
On Saturday, February 10th, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Turtl Project to host a collaborative cleanup at Morningside Park. Turtl Project is a sustainable water apparel company that began by hosting beach cleanups in Barcelona and has continued these efforts with coastal cleanups in Miami. We were joined by 45 volunteers who set out with bags, buckets and gloves to cover the park’s grassy area and rocky coastlines and remove as much debris as possible. Over the course of the cleanup, volunteers returned with copious amounts of trash, including bottle caps, plastic straws, food wrappers, glass and plastic bottles, and tons of plastic fragments. The majority of the items brought back to us were single-use items that are convenient, but are made of materials that do not biodegrade and will contribute to the microplastic pollution of our ocean. Our hard-working volunteers filled 7 large trash bags with 151.5 pounds of trash that we removed from the park and properly disposed of. By eliminating this litter, we are able to prevent further plastic pollution in Biscayne Bay and keep the bay safe for the animals and people that call it their home. We are grateful to Turtl Project for collaborating with us and to NDO H2O for providing water in sustainable packaging to keep our volunteers hydrated!
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, 54% of volunteers participated in using the app to record data.
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