Teaming Up to Clean Marco’s Beach

Over 80 volunteers showed up at Residents Beach on October 19th for a Beach Cleanup sponsored by Marco Island Civic Association (MICA) and Our Daily Bread Food Pantry (ODBFP). The Marco Island Academy Key Club members also made a large showing. Thanks to members of the Beach and Coastal Resources Advisory Committee (BACR) for organizing the monthly beach cleanups, providing the buckets, grabbers, gloves, and complimentary beach shirts, which are blue this year. For almost two hours, volunteers collected over 130 pounds of trash, which included long sections of PVC pipes found discarded on the dunes along with several pieces of wood.

Members of the community also showed up, many of whom follow the monthly beach cleanups from the South Beach location. “The community came together for a wonderful cause, protecting our most important asset, our beach and environment,” said Ruth McCann, Executive Director for MICA.

“Whenever I see the cleanup schedule listed, if I am not working or not travelling, I would try to join the cleanup for as long as I can make a contribution,” said 24-year resident Patty Barber. “The beach has improved drastically from years ago. Years ago, we had buckets of straws, cigarette and cigar butts, and bottle caps along the dunes, which is difficult to see when it is covered with sand. Now, you have to look hard to find these small items,” said Barber, who is not new to beach cleanups; she was a member of the BACR years ago, and it was good to see her back on the beach barefoot and wearing her signature “Bad Hair Day Hat.”

Barber mentioned she has seen fewer and fewer plastic straws during beach clean-up. On March 5, 2018, the Marco Island City Council unanimously voted to “prohibit the use of plastic straws by those businesses located directly adjacent to the city beaches? Drinking straws that are made from plastic or compostable/corn-based are showing up in noticeable quantities during the two-hour beach cleanups. Luckily, many of these straws are being intercepted by volunteers before washing up into the Gulf before they cause harm to sea turtles and other marine life.

Beach cleanups are more than just picking up trash on the beach; they are a call to action. By participating and picking up pieces of plastic wrappers, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, plastic straws, and cigarette butts found on the sand, the lives of fish, birds, sea turtles, and other animals can be saved. A single-use plastic bag looks like a yummy floating jellyfish to a sea turtle. But once ingested, plastic will lead to internal harm. Discarded fishing line can entangle a swimming dolphin, manatee, or bird, with deadly consequences.

Please respect the resting shorebirds on Marco beaches. On most mornings, you are going to encounter several flocks of shorebirds preening, sitting, resting, and sleeping, with a few foraging offshore and then joining the flock. It’s a tempting selfie moment, but please give them space by walking around. Most of these birds are resting to store energy for migration, and with frequent flushing, they use up a lot of energy needed to continue their journey.