Marco Realtors® Gather to Cleanup Island Waterways

Marco Island Area Association of Realtors® (MIAAOR), along with community participants with their boats and crew members, took to Marco Island’s waterways, residential canals, and bays on July 26, 2025, for the statewide Florida Realtors® Waterway Cleanup. With over 100 miles of man-made canals, 40-45 volunteers were assigned locations to clean and coordinate logistics. A big thanks to Rose Marina for participating as the drop-off location for over 50 pounds of collected debris.

This annual July event has become a signature for Marco Island’s Realtors®, and a big thanks to Jack Winnik, realtor at Engle and Volkers, Kandy Sweeney, MIAAOR Chief Executive Officer, and their team for another successful waterways cleanup!

MIAAOR collaborated with local sponsors such as Keep Collier Beautiful, Marco Island Water Sports, Rose Marina, Waste Management Collier County, C2 Communications, Clean Boats Clean Waters, Navs Popcorn and Donuts, Sweet Annie’s Ice Cream, DaVinci’s Italian Restaurant, Snook Inn, CJ’s on the Bay, Publix, and Calusa Pool Company.

The July Waterways cleanup is part of the Florida Realtors® “Clean Up Florida Waters” initiative. According to Florida Realtors®, in 2024 Clean Up Florida Waters campaign removed over 32 tons of trash to protect one of the State’s most precious resources, and that’s “more than the weight of a fully loaded garbage truck.”

The program also encourages local groups to partner with existing environmental groups, such as the Coastal Conservation Association (CCA), local CCA chapters, State Waterkeepers organizations, Captains for Clean Water, and Keep Florida Beautiful. Stellar MLS is the primary sponsor for Realtors® Clean Up Florida Waters. Additional sponsors are Real MLS and Coastal Conservation Association (CCA).

Marco Island is the largest of the Ten Thousand Islands, and manatees and dolphins are often seen frolicking in our backyard canals. Manatees and dolphins often become entangled with floatable debris such as fishing nets. Sheets of plastic trash or single-use grocery bags are often mistaken for jellyfish, a food source for many marine animals. Foam take-out containers are another common floatable debris, and according to experts, it takes an estimated 500 years for these foam containers to decompose in the environment, which makes them the most persistent type of marine debris.

The most common way floatable debris can enter our waterways is through the storm drain during rainstorms, when runoff carries trash and plastics from roadways and parking lots. Wind can easily blow plastic from land into nearby waterways, and being lightweight and floatable, can travel quickly along the local waterways.

A big shout out to Team Ocean on Keewaydin Island - a group of boat-based volunteers from Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. On this Saturday morning, Team Ocean stopped by the MIAAOR’s tent on Keewaydin Island with their grabbers and collection bags to share in their mission. They were not only picking up litter but also informing visitors that Keewaydin is an important nesting habitat for the nesting loggerhead sea turtles through October 31st. Though Keewaydin Island seemed to be pet-friendly with dogs running un-leashed, Team Ocean acknowledged the challenges of informing visitors to keep their dogs on a leash while visiting the island. “Pets Must Be Leashed At All Times” signs are visibly posted all over the Island.