Longboat Key Turtle Watch hosts January beach cleanup

Jan. 23 dawned foggy and damp, but groups of volunteers with the Longboat Key Turtle Watch still searched for trash along the island's beaches as part of their monthly cleanups. 

Because the cleanups are organized through Keep Manatee Beautiful, small groups met up at different locations in Manatee County and spread out across the beach from tide line to vegetation line. Trash often gets caught in the seaweed near the water as the tide goes in and out, but on Saturday, there wasn't much to be found compared to other cleanups. Bridgette Clark and daughter Giana usually walk down at the tide line and Giana went about a quarter mile without finding any trash at all. 

"The beach is pretty clean," Bridgette said. "I'm really very impressed." 

However, up at the vegetation line, there was more trash to be found tangled in the dunes. Cyndi Seamon led a group around 9 a.m., when the fog was still hanging heavily, and the group filled bags with trash, including ropes, disposable face masks and gloves as well as plenty of microplastics.