The Fishy Fashion Show exhibit and opening night were a mixture of joy, silliness, education, seriousness, and creativity. These are essential ingredients of success when trying to get an important message out to the public. Artist Joan Matey’s costumes made of marine debris delivered a message both powerful and fun.

On September 20, BBAP hosted the Pelican Harbor Marina cleanup for International Coastal Cleanup Day (ICC). Over 30 volunteers got to work picking up small debris, like microplastics and bottle caps, and stumbling upon larger debris, like a rusted bike. In total, 248 lbs. of trash were removed from Pelican Harbor Marina.

On International Coastal Cleanup Day, Rookery Bay staff and volunteers met at Shell Island Road (SIR) within the reserve for a successful cleanup effort. The morning began with just a few participants, but the group quickly grew to include more than a dozen volunteers, staff and students from Florida Gulf Coast University.

On Saturday September 20th, employees from the FDEP Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection (RCP) traded their desks for the shoreline to take part in the 40th International Coastal Cleanup, hosted locally by Keep Wakulla County Beautiful (KWCB). This annual event unites volunteers worldwide in a shared mission: protecting oceans and shorelines from marine debris.

This week NCAP participated in the International Coastal Cleanup event held at Linda Peterson Park by the IFAS/Sea grant office on the coast of Hernando County. NCAP staff, and some staff from BBSAP, launched out of the Bayport boat ramp on the airboat to retrieve hurricane debris in the areas further away from where event volunteers on kayaks could reach.

Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Beach Debris! Fishy Fashions and the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve is pleased to announce a special installation in our nature center. Fishy Fashions are marvelously inventive costumes made from flotsam and jetsam and assorted beach debris. This exhibition will begin with a kick-off event, “Fishy Fashion Show,” on Tuesday September 30th at 5:30PM.

On August 21st, the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves (BBAP) team worked with Miami Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resource Management (DERM) to clean up the Coco Plum Mangrove Preserve in Coral Gables. The team did a tremendous job pulling all kinds of debris out of the mangroves, removing well over 1,000 lbs. of debris.