Volunteers Needed for Florida Coastal Cleanup
TIERRA VERDE - Tampa Bay Watch in partnership with Keep Pinellas Beautiful is participating in Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup efforts on Saturday, October 16, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. for a land and sea based cleanup effort of Fort De Soto Park and Cunningham Key. Volunteers are welcome to bring their own kayak or canoe to participate in the water-based cleanup. Interested volunteers should register on tampabaywatch.org. International Coastal Cleanup is the world's largest volunteer event of its kind. Last year, 498,818 volunteers picked up 7.4 million pounds of marine debris, in 108 countries and locations around the world, 45 US states and the District of Columbia. Tampa Bay Watch sees the this event as an important way to help Fort De Soto park staff clean up human-generated trash in the park as well as marine debris that floats onto the shorelines from Tampa Bay and Gulf of Mexico, also protecting wildlife from unnecessary injury or death. "Coastal Cleanups are a great family event and great way to keep our and oceans clean", said Martha Gruber, Environmental Scientist for Tampa Bay Watch. Since 2001, more than 3,215 Tampa Bay Watch volunteers have collected over 41,353 pounds of debris including items like Styrofoam cups, construction debris, car batteries and countless cigarette butts, party balloons and plastic bags.
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