Biscayne National Park Weekday Beach Cleanups (DEC-APRIL '22)

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NOTE: We are not currently accepting individual registrations, but rather PRE-ORGANIZED groups of 4-12 volunteers (ages 16+). Reach out to friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers and email bisc_beach_cleanup@nps.gov to sign up.

Join us weekdays this winter and spring at Biscayne National Park to help preserve our beautiful Park. With a preservation area of 95% water, we take ocean pollution as a serious issue, not just for our marine life but for our community of South Florida as well. Accumulating debris on our beaches can hinder successful nesting by threatened and endangered sea turtles. We need YOU to help us protect and conserve sea turtles!

Weather permitting, we will travel by park boats across Biscayne Bay to the oceanside of Sands/Elliott Key to remove marine debris from a sea turtle nesting beach. A typical cleanup day runs from 8am until ~3pm, with a half hour lunch break on the islands. Keeping your health and safety in mind, all cleanups will be conducted in small groups and adhere with park health and safety mandates.

Requirements:

• Orientation or Training (morning of)
• Minimum Age 16
• All volunteers must provide a signed waiver, which can be done beforehand or during the morning orientation meeting. Participants under the age of 18 must provide a waiver signed by parent/guardian in order to participate.
• Group size must be between 4 and 12 people. We may cancel or reschedule an event due to low participant turnout or unsafe weather conditions.
• Work is strenuous. This work requires riding on small boats, wading in waist-deep water, walking along rocky beaches, and bending over to pick up items of varying weight. Participants should be comfortable engaging in these actions.

• Individuals must be in good health, if you have a temperature of 100.4 degrees or higher or do not feel well, you should not attend the cleanup.
• Participants are asked to wear face coverings at all times and follow 6-ft social distancing guidelines, whenever possible. Hand sanitizer will be provided and should be used often.
• Individuals must bring plenty of food and water for the day, comfortable quick-dry clothing, preferably long-sleeved, including a hat, sunglasses, and closed toed shoes that you do not mind getting wet.
• We will provide: a large water jug for re-filling your beverage container, sunscreen, bug spray, hand sanitizer, life jackets, dive booties (for those that need them), and all work-related gear (such as protective gloves, trash bags, etc.).