It’s looking like game time.
The National Football League’s Green Week ahead of Super Bowl LV kicked off on Anna Maria Island, where divers cleaned an offshore reef.
Divers from Force Blue — a nonprofit that retrains former special operations veterans and combat divers to assist in marine conservation efforts — removed almost a ton of debris Jan. 25 from the Spanish Rocks Reef offshore of Holmes Beach with the help of NFL Green, the Tampa Bay Super Bowl LV Host Committee, PepsiCo and The Florida Aquarium.
The event, named Dive55 after the 55 divers who broke into five teams of 11 to comb the reef section-by-section, was the first in a series of Green Week initiatives the NFL sponsored to celebrate the Super Bowl.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials supervised the divers from two vessels and helped haul heavier debris to shore so it could be sorted by volunteers.
Recovered debris included lengths of rope, piles of plastic and stacks of abandoned crab traps with the occasional sea urchin hidden inside and in need of return to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Florida Aquarium and the Hillsborough County School District will repurpose some debris into educational artwork for an aquarium exhibit.
Force Blue team member Steve “Deadpool” Grewell, who assisted in organizing and deploying the dive teams, told The Islander that he helped point the cleanup to the island’s shores.
“I actually dove this site last June just having fun, but I saw all the ghost traps, nets and ropes,” Grewell said. “So, I actually scheduled a dive to clean it up last August.”
Grewell said renourishment efforts along the island’s beaches in 2020 forced him to cancel the dive. So when he was asked where Force Blue could host a cleanup event around Tampa Bay, he knew where to point.
“This kind of thing is really amazing. It’s just people getting together and doing the right thing,” he said. “Even if it’s a small thing, it’s better than nothing.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis also commented on the collaborative cleanup efforts in a Jan. 25 news release.
“We are grateful for the Force Blue team,” DeSantis said. “Today’s Dive55 event in Anna Maria promises to not only restore a significant stretch of coral reef but to bring veterans together with the community and foster important conversations.”
The event also saw participation from former Tampa Bay Buccaneers kicker Martín Gramática and Chris Lucas from the country music duo Locash.
Getting ready for Super Bowl LV
Who: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs.
Where: Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 7.
How to watch: CBS.
And, don’t forget to get in on the game in The Islander. Guess the score to win $100. (print edition, pages 18-19)