MIAMI BEACH (AP/WSVN) — Starting New Year’s Day, you can still wear bikinis on the beaches of Miami Beach, but forget about showing any butts — cigarette butts, that is.
A smoking ban was implemented Sunday after the stroke of midnight at all Miami Beach municipal parks and public beaches.
“Smoking cigarettes with filters is no longer allowed on our beaches,” said Miami Beach City Commissioner Alex J. Fernandez.
Signs in parts of the city include the hashtag #nofilter.
The city approved the smoking ban in September, taking advantage of a new state law that empowers local governments to ban smoking on public beaches and in parks.
Under the new measure, a person can be fined $100 and spend up to 60 days in jail for a first-time violation.
“This is not about issuing a fine. We want to promote the right and consistent behavior with the law,” said Fernandez.
Fernandez said he sponsored the measure to keep the city’s beaches pristine and protect sea turtles, seabirds and other wildlife.
“This paradise is an important economic engine,” Fernandez said in a statement. “Cigarette butts are not the butts our 18 million visitors want to see. This new law will help keep our paradise clean and beautiful.”
According to the Ocean Conservancy, cigarette butts are the most commonly recovered item during coastal cleanup efforts.
“Some of those cigarette butts get [caught] in the wind, and they get to the water, and it’s also contaminating the fish,” said Miami Beach resident Valerie Navarette, “so it is a win-win-win situation here.”
Navarette said it’s not just the ocean that residents are worried about; it’s the birds, too.
“The birds eat them; they think it’s food, so they eat them, and eventually they die because their stomachs are full of veneno, this poison,” she said.
Miami Beach is the top neighborhood for tourists visiting greater Miami. The greater metro area attracted 24.2 million visitors last year.
City officials and residents who support the ban said it will help keep Miami Beach looking the way people expect it.
“We want to make sure that this economic engine is pristine, that everyone can come here and they enjoy the right butts, not the dirty butts in the sand,” said Fernandez.
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