Miami Climate Week Kayak Cleanup with Miami Waterkeeper

Overview

On March 25th, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Miami Waterkeeper as well as Biscayne Bay Paddle Boards and Kayaks Rentals and Miami Climate 365 to host a kayak-based shore and island cleanup of Flagler Memorial Island in Biscayne Bay as a celebration of Miami Climate Week. To start our day, we met up at the kayak rental shop where our team of 17 volunteers heard from our Community Engagement Associate, Lillian, our Educational Outreach Associate, Jack, and Miami Waterkeeper Education and Outreach Assistant, Natalia, on the importance of minimizing our environmental footprint as well as a briefing on our kayak route and the likely trash hotspots on the island. With the help of the team at Biscayne Bay Paddle Boards and Kayaks Rentals, we were quickly able to launch our kayaks and set off for the island. We made our way to the eastern side of the island where after making landfall, our volunteers received their gear and spread out about the island to see how much trash they could remove from this popular picnic isle. Much to our surprise, the island was covered in signs marking it as a “Leave No Trace” location, yet was inundated with trash cans, many of which were overflowing onto the ground and even into the water. Leave No Trace areas are intended to be protected and monitored regularly rather than contain permanent trash cans, so seeing a plethora and that they all had not been emptied was alarming. Trash from within these trash cans can easily overflow if not regularly monitored, as well as be carried back to the water or pollute the shore-based ecosystems such as shallow mangroves, and can even be spread by scavengers like raccoons. After just an hour, our team of volunteers had collected and removed more than 73 pounds of trash from all over the island. With our trash collected, we enjoyed the sights of a beautiful day on Biscayne Bay as we kayaked our way back to land and led a wrap-up discussion on the impacts of plastic pollution and the easiest ways to reduce and reuse common sources of pollution in our daily lives. We give a huge thank you to Miami Waterkeeper for working with us, to Miami Climate 365 for furthering marine conservation initiatives in South Florida, to Biscayne Bay Paddle Boards and Kayaks for the kayaks and a great day on the water, and of course to our phenomenal team of volunteers for their hard work!