Sarasota Bay Watch hopes to clean up at second event

If you attended last year’s Sarasota Bay Watch Sister Keys cleanup, you got a glimpse of the benefits of a $1.2 million mitigation project that the town took on in 2007. At this year’s cleanup, the effects will be even more evident with seagrass and mangroves growing higher.

“It’s had another whole year of growing into itself,” said Sarasota Bay Watch founder Rusty Chinnis.

Last year at the first Sister Keys Cleanup, 53 volunteers collected more than 2,000 pounds of trash, while also exploring the town-owned wetland preserve. The items collected at that event included a bedspread, baseball and unopened bottles of water, most of which probably washed into the mangroves from the Gulf of Mexico.
This year, Chinnis is challenging participants to beat last year’s total.

The event is co-sponsored by the town, Cannons Marina and the Chiles Restaurant Group. The cleanup will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, May 8. Participants should meet at the town boat ramp at the corner of Lois Avenue and Linley Street in the Longbeach Village to travel by boat to the islands. Participants who have their own boats can meet at the island. Boats will also be available to ferry volunteers back and forth between Sister Keys and the mainland.

The event is limited to 60 participants. After the cleanup, volunteers will be treated to lunch at Mar Vista Dockside Restaurant & Pub. Call 953-5333.

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If You Go
Sister Keys Cleanup
When: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 8
Where: Meet at the town boat ramp at the corner of Lois Avenue and Linley Street in the Longbeach Village to travel by boat to the islands.

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].