Sarasota Bay Watch (SBW) will be conducting their Annual Sister Keys Clean up on Saturday, May 4, 2019. The event is a collaboration with the Town of Longboat Key and the Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant. Volunteers organized by SBW Events Coordinator Ronda Ryan will work for four hours on the island and around the mangrove fringes collecting trash and recyclable items.
The Longboat Key Marine division will be patrolling the intracoastal waterway to slow boaters. Volunteers without a boat will be ferried to the island by volunteers with boats and by SBW Board members. Reef Innovations Inc. will once again help the effort with a barge where volunteers can off load their trash. SBW members will pick up bags deposited along the mangrove shoreline by volunteers.
Once back at the Town Boat Ramp volunteers will load the debris into a truck provided by the Town of Longboat Key. Public Works employees recently did an invasive cleanup and cleared and marked trails for those participating in the cleanup. Volunteers in the past have found a wide range of debris including bed frames, boat cushions, umbrellas, life vests, a boat hull, a tackle box, crab pots, fishing poles and buoys. Most of the debris enters the mangroves on high tides and is trapped there. All plastics and cans will be collected in separate green bags provided by SBW and recycled!
At 11:30 all volunteers will return to the Mar Vista Bayfront where they will be treated to a complimentary lunch.