Indian River County volunteers were a part of the pollution solution last Saturday morning during the 11th annual Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup as they joined more than 700 others for the environmentally friendly event.
Six of the 30 Treasure Coast locations were in Indian River County, where local volunteers spread out from Riverside Park and north to the Sebastian Inlet Marina.
“I’m here because I love picking up trash. It helps the environment and saves sea life inside the lagoon,” said 13-year-old Genevieve Presti, ELC GreenTeen volunteer.
Since 2008 more than 8,500 people have rolled up their sleeves to remove more than 77 tons of trash from Treasure Coast waterways, with 21.05 tons of the garbage coming from Indian River County.
This year organizers estimated more than 300 local volunteers trekked along the edge of the lagoon, and paddled and motored to spoil islands, all armed with gloves, buckets and trash pickers to help clean up our waterways.
Sarah Christopherson, ELC site leader at the Wabasso Causeway boat ramp, teamed up with Plastic Free Florida and Paddles by the Sea to give the popular boat launch a thorough cleaning, while also raising awareness about the dangers of plastics breaking down in the waterways.
“Our community members are actively trying to keep our waterways clean. This amazing ecosystem that we have is the most biodiverse estuary in North America. We want to make sure that we’re doing our part to help keep it clean and looking beautiful,” Christopherson stated.
She added that ELC education staff has increased its plastic awareness efforts in response to studies showing that we are indirectly ingesting plastics through the food chain.
“Plastics don’t really biodegrade they break down into smaller pieces of plastic,” said Christopherson. “Those small pieces absorb toxins and other contaminants that marine creatures ingest and it can make them really sick, which affects humans too.”
Event coordinator April Price, who annually organizes the event on behalf of the Marine Industries Association of the Treasure Coast, describes them as “basically the chamber of commerce for marine industries business, from fishing to boating to working waterfronts.”
In addition to ubiquitous plastic bags, cigarette butts and beer cans, volunteers have found bicycles, shopping carts, air conditioning compressors and decks with tiki torches on them. But the weirdest find over the years, according to Price, was a glass eye in St. Lucie State Park.
“We do this to teach personal responsibility and educate boaters,” explained Price. “It’s something that has to be learned and taught in many cases.”
The good news, she said, is that the amount has decreased from an average 12 tons of trash per cleanup during the first few years, to about five tons the past few years. “The more people you get out there, the more people that are part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
All volunteers are invited to an appreciation barbecue on Aug. 5 at the Ft. Pierce Yacht Club.
For more information, visit tcwaterwaycleanup.com.
