Nonprofit’s ‘Ocean Sweep’ nets over a ton of trash

Teams of volunteers helped the Water Warrior Alliance collect over a ton of trash from local waterways and shorelines Saturday as part of the St. Pete Ocean Sweep tournament.

Participating groups, including other nonprofits, weighed their bounties at the waterfront SkyBeach Resort. The festive annual event – sponsored by the City of St. Petersburg – also raised money for SCUBA camp scholarships.

Many people kept to shorelines due to strong currents, including a group of kids who pulled 607 pounds of garbage from a mangrove forest. While proud of the event’s impact, Jenna Byrne, founder of the Water Warrior Alliance (WWA), downplayed the over-2,100-pound total haul.

“It was only 2,100 pounds, but 1,200 was literally from South St. Pete neighborhoods,” Byrne said. “We’ll pull 5,000-10,000 pounds out of a lot of tournaments.”

Jenna Byrne founded the Water Warrior Alliance in 2017.

She noted the event occurred during the first weekend of Earth Month rather than closer to Earth Day, April 22. Byrne said “really choppy” waters kept some boat captains from participating.

The resort is in the Skyway Marina District, and multiple groups fished trash out of nearby areas like Maximo Park. Byrne noted that most marine debris is wind-driven and often accumulates in mangroves.

Brooksville-based TTI Machine brought six kids who collected what Byrne called the “highest total weight I’ve had for any kind of youth division before.” The machine shop’s team submitted a brake rotor with a small tree growing out of it in the event’s “most unique” category

“We found a suitcase,” said Annabelle, 10. “There was nothing in it, though.”

Unlike previous tournaments, the event’s cleanup area was confined to St. Petersburg city limits. Susan Olszewski found an abandoned tree house along Booker Creek.

She said the makeshift shelter in South St. Pete’s Campbell Park neighborhood was full of blankets, buckets, gloves and other garbage. She said the over 400 pounds of refuse collected “wasn’t half of what’s left. There’s still so much more to do.”

Byrne echoed that sentiment after the event. She said the St. Petersburg-based nonprofit led an ocean sweep along area beaches in the weeks following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and collected over 5,000 pounds in a day.

“There’s way more trash still in the water,” Byrne continued. “Obviously, 2,100 pounds is so good, but based on the cleanups I normally do – and what I’ve seen and surveyed over the past couple of weeks – there’s so much more.”

The event was still a success. Proceeds from a raffle and merchandise sales benefit Camp Coral, a WWA educational program that enables kids to receive SCUBA and coral restoration certifications.

Kids who participated in the event can receive up to $2,500 off camp tuition. Alexis Barrera, who helped lead the TTI Machine team, believes the experience helps youth become responsible environmental stewards as adults.

“They enjoyed every bit of it,” he said.

Jenna Byrne (left) with the TTI Machine team, who set a new youth division record.

Byrne noted the tournament also provides much-needed exposure for other local nonprofits, like the Old Salt Fishing Foundation. “They do so much conservation work on the back end that nobody knows about,” she said.

A Florida native, Byrne launched the WWA in 2017 after returning to St. Petersburg. Deploying Water Goats – a surface net system – around stormwater outflows to trap trash before it enters delicate ecosystems is a focus.

While Water Goats are exceedingly efficient, cleaning the nets is labor-intensive and decidedly dirty. Tournaments foster environmental sustainability by providing a fun way to “make a difference.”

St. Pete Hauling provides free dumpsters, and WWA separates recyclable materials from waste. The nonprofit will enlist local artists to transform collected plastics and a boat anchor into a sculpture for Tampa Bay Water.

Byrne credited the city for its support and sustainability efforts. Gulfport Dive Center offered free SCUBA gear for volunteers.

Byrne is already turning her attention to a September coastal ocean sweep, when conditions are often calmer. She also noted that many marine-focused businesses are still recovering from an unprecedented hurricane season and believes additional time and marketing will propel future events.

“If we don’t pull all of this trash out, it’s going to degrade, turn into microplastics or make our water quality even worse,” Byrne said. “Our economy is based on tourism, so we have to keep it nice and pretty for everybody to keep coming back.”

A small tree began sprouting from a discarded brake rotor.