- April 25, 2024
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Nancy and Jack Rozance
Nancy and Jack Rozance
Treasure, not trash. A couple shell fragments painted with reminders to wear a mask were scattered on the sand.
Nancy Rozance uses a trash grabber to pick up tiny bits.
Nancy Rozance surveys where they've come from.
Nancy and Jack Rozance spread out to make sure they hit the whole swath of sand.
Jack Rozance found turtle eggs in the vegetation line.
Nancy Rozance and Jack Rozance.
Nancy Rozance's bag grew heavier as she found bigger bits of garbage.
A sand-man had a diving toy for a nose. Because it could look like a tasty snack for a marine animal, Nancy Rozance removed it.
Not trash — Nancy Rozance almost mistook a feather's stem for a straw.
A sand-man with a discarded hat.
Courtesy photo.
Todd and Lois Gillenwater. Courtesy photo.
Todd and Lois Gillenwater. Courtesy photo.
Organizer Dawn DiFoggio stands with the trash collected in just 15 minutes. Courtesy photo.
Ayla Sellers with her haul of trash. Courtesy photo.
The Longboat Key Turtle Watch dispersed on the island's beaches on Dec. 12, reusable bags and grabbers in hand, as they picked up trash for their monthly beach cleanup event.
The organization does a cleanup every month, organized by Keep Manatee Beautiful. Volunteers are divided into the zones turtle watchers patrol during the season, don their masks and fan out along the sand to pick up refuse left behind and washed ashore.
On Dec. 12, it was a warm and sunny winter day, making conditions perfect for a morning walk. Several groups found sea turtle eggs that had been washed out of the few remaining nests on the beach when Tropical Storm Eta hit. One group found an abandoned, sea-worn chair on the sand and Ann Quackenbush found three shoes -- none of them matching.
Overall, there wasn't too much out of the ordinary as far as trash collection goes — bottle caps, cigarette butts, straws and bits of micro-plastics — but there was a lot of it.
The next beach cleanup will be early January.
