International Coastal Cleanup kicks off in Sanibel Island

Keeping our southwest Florida beaches beautiful: that’s the mission for Ocean Conservancy as they kick off a coastal cleanup.

It all started Saturday in Sanibel as the Ocean Conservancy betters our beaches with its annual International Coastal Cleanup.

WINK News reporter Zoe Warner was out there learning about why this is so important for our shores.

The City Beach Park on Sanibel Island had volunteers out in full force, spread out, doing what they came to do–clean up trash.

Zoe met with a family who got up bright and early Saturday morning for the event, which they were happy to do because they wanted to keep their community clean and safe.

The Coastal Watch Director with the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation, Kealy Pfau, spoke with WINK as well.

“SCCF has partnered with Keep Lee County Beautiful to organize an island-wide cleanup out here on Sanibel Captiva and even North Captiva. We have 400 participants coming out and it is just going to be an amazing event, getting all the trash off the beaches and getting it ready for the season,” explained Pfau.

Since the International Coastal Cleanup began, over 18 million volunteers and 380 million pounds of trash have been picked up.

Each year, the Ocean Conservancy Action Center gathers people to clean up the beaches near them.

And on Saturday in southwest Florida, over 400 people and 20 organizations were expected to show up and make a change.