The good news: local waterways contain thousands of pounds less debris following a recent cleanup.
The bad news: due to hurricanes Helene and Milton, there is far more debris to remove.
Organized Fishermen of Florida executive director Alexis Meschelle told The Islander April 11 that volunteers removed about 10,600 pounds of debris from local waterways during an April 5 cleanup hosted by the group’s Cortez chapter.
OFF was founded in 1967 to ensure representation of commercial fishers’ interests at the state level and offers a variety of programs and assistance to fishers across Florida.
The organization’s Cortez chapter has hosted an annual Cortez Shoreline Cleanup for five years, with volunteers gathering to fill a 30-yard dumpster full of marine debris from local waterways.
Meschelle said volunteers usually collect large pieces of debris — such as a kitchen sink — during the annual shoreline cleanups, but this year, things were different.
She said this year’s volunteers also found a litany of smaller pieces of debris that likely were swept off land by last year’s storms, including ample amounts of construction materials, like insulation and lumber.
Some of the larger items found this year included debris from a wooden dock and a bench.
Meschelle said the proliferation of smaller items in local waters made this year’s cleanup more tedious than past events.
“Usually, I would say there are not as many smaller items. They are always there — there’s always a random shoe or something. But because of the storms, there were so many smaller items that it just took a bit longer,” she said.
Last year, a second dumpster had to be brought in to remove all the collected debris.
This year, the amount of debris remaining in local waters has OFF pursuing grant funding to help support additional cleanup efforts.
“It’s to be expected, unfortunately, after a storm that there is going to be a large amount of debris in the waters,” Meschelle said. “But there is still an excessive amount of trash. We could have done five more days, easy.… We could spend weeks out there, honestly.”
However, removing the remaining abundance of debris is not as simple as organizing more volunteer-based cleanup events.
Meschelle said removing marine debris is not an easy task and requires time, energy and equipment to complete — on top of taking time away from fishing and earning a living.
She added that cleanups are best handled by locals.
“When an area is hit, it should be our local watermen and women that are cleaning it up, not some random company from Louisiana,” Meschelle said. “They don’t know our waterways like we do. They can’t do as good of a job, they don’t know where to look.”
Meschelle is now looking into funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for resources and support for local fishers and boaters to continue marine cleanup efforts.
“We really only do one volunteer-based (cleanup) a year,” she said. “We’re hoping to start adding some that are paid so we can really spend some quality time on the water to get some of this stuff out.”
For more info
For more about Organized Fishermen of Florida, visit the group’s website at organizedfishermenflorida.com.