Leadership and members of the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) chapter of SWMS came together on a beautiful Sunday morning on November 19th to make a difference in the local community and for the world’s ocean. The crew was armed with gloves, buckets, sunglasses and sunscreen for a morning of trash collection and getting to know each other; the perfect first event for the newly formed chapter!
NSU’s Oceanographic Campus is located within walking distance to the beach in Hollywood, Florida, and oftentimes students and employees spend breaks between classes and work walking over to the beach. Unfortunately, there is always trash to be picked up along these walks, and this is what inspired the NSU SWMS chapter to organize a beach cleanup as the first chapter event! So many, and probably all, people are in the field of marine science because they love the marine environment and want to spend their lives learning about it, protecting it, and conserving the biodiversity that it supports. Participating in a beach cleanup is not only an amazing opportunity to be at the front-lines of marine conservation, it’s also fun! Being located in beautiful South Florida, most of the NSU SWMS chapter and community already spend a lot of time at the beach, so what better way to spend time hanging at the beach with new friends, than simultaneously doing something great for the environment!
On first glance, the beach appeared spotless, and the crew wondered if any trash would even be collected. Low and behold, as NSU SWMS continued to comb the beach, trash ranging from microplastics and fishing line to bottles and cans was found throughout the beach. One of the most interesting pieces of trash found was a pair of doll sunglasses! Most of the trash found consisted of plastic, including straws, small pieces of brittle plastic, cups, straws, and wrappers, and was found blown away from the ocean and close to lifeguard stations and the sea oats. Beachgoers, lifeguards, and passersby wholeheartedly thanked the team for their dedication to collecting trash, and some even threw in a piece of trash or two themselves.
The group spent about two hours collecting trash, separating into smaller teams going north and south along Hollywood Beach. The weather was perfectly sunny and countless invaluable conversations flowed between club members about their master’s projects, labs they’re involved in, favorite marine animals… The list goes on and on. The creation of the NSU SWMS chapter has been a great way for NSU students to connect with people from different research areas and learn about some of the other great research being conducted within the NSU community, as well as create new friendships with other like-minded scientists. After successfully filling ten buckets of trash, the team ended the cleanup with a rewarding picnic. Everyone shared sandwiches, chips, and stories as they got to know each other and bonded over their love of the beach, ocean, and environment!
Trash collection information was reported to NOAA via the Marine Debris App (https://debristracker.org/), which was a simple and effective process to track marine debris for anyone hosting beach cleanups. Knowing more about the different types and amounts of debris found on a beach, or even on your street, can be the first step towards preventing it. In order to learn more about the problem and understand the types and amount of marine debris in our environment, we need to collect data. Debris Tracker is designed to help citizen scientists or in this case, professional scientists, make a difference by contributing data on pollution in our community. It’s a user-friendly app that allows you to categorize the types, sizes, and approximate quantities of different marine debris. The first NSU SMWS was a great success and the chapter is looking forward to many more events!
NSU’s beach clean up was organized by Breanna Vanderplow and Megan Miller. The post written by Breanna Vanderplow and edited by SWMS Comms Lead Katie Gallagher.