Volunteers Remove Thousands of Pounds of Trash from Islands

Like many Floridians, the beach is Lisa Whalen’s happy place. But living on Sanibel, Whalen wasn’t able to enjoy that happy place for months after Hurricane Ian roared ashore in September 2022.

Instead, she spent a few months going to the beach almost weekly with a different mission in mind — to help get the beaches back to normal. Along with hundreds of other volunteers, Whalen has been assisting SCCF Coastal Watch’s post-hurricane beach cleanups, which began in December and continued through February in partnership with the City of Sanibel.

“At the start of the cleanups, recent red tide blooms had caused thousands of dead fish to wash up on Sanibel, so the (somewhat smelly) effort included removing both hurricane trash and decaying fish from Lighthouse Beach Park to Tarpon Bay Beach,” said SCCF Coastal Watch Director Kealy McNeal. “We never knew what we were going to find — we uncovered lamps, dolls, ornaments, even a mini fridge!”

The cleanups continued weekly at the start of the New Year to re-address areas that were initially cleaned.

“We continue to find little things in the sand that you don’t want the wildlife to ingest,” Whalen said. “It makes me feel good going over it with a fine-tooth comb.”

Since January, there have also been 196 volunteer signups for the Conservation Cleanup Crew, a weekly endeavor to clean up SCCF conservation lands.

“We’re so grateful to all the individuals and partners who have reached out to help SCCF and our community recover from the storm,” McNeal said.

MANGROVES:

A Symbol and Tool of Resilience

After Hurricane Ian, many were reminded of the importance of mangroves, which help stabilize shorelines and provide a buffer against storm damage.

“Mangroves are also a vital source of energy that provide nursery habitat for juvenile fish and nesting habitat for wading birds,” said Coastal Watch Director Kealy McNeal.

To help the island continue to recover from the hurricane, McNeal recently re-launched Coastal Watch’s Adopt-aMangrove program, which invites local community members to nurture mangrove propagules at their homes. The adopted plants are returned to SCCF and planted at one of SCCF’s many shoreline restoration sites. More than 200 mangrove saplings were adopted in late January during the re-opening of the Native Landscapes & Garden Center.

“Our goal for our participants and the community is to instill a deeper understanding and appreciation of mangroves in Southwest Florida, and of course to keep our island ecosystems thriving and protected,” McNeal said.