KEY BISCAYNE, FLA. (WSVN) - South Florida’s scuba diving community and a national organization joined forces to help protect some precious marine resources.
The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation held its second-annual community-wide reef cleanup event in Crandon Park Marina on Friday.
Organization officials said the goal of the Reel in for Reefs event is to help keep oceans clean and clear of pollution such as bottles, fishing equipment and other trash.
“They saw that and saw the need for this to happen, and they decided to fund and put on this event to have all of the dive boats work together, instead of compete with each other, to go save our oceans and save our sea turtles,” said Lauren Mezzanotte, Reel in for Reefs’ Debris Collection Coordinator.
Twenty-five dive boats with over 400 crew members and divers sailed off into the waters of Key Biscayne.
Divers will remove debris like trash and discarded fishing gear from natural and artificial reefs.
The debris removal is happening ahead of nesting season, which is a critical time for marine life.
Considered an iconic South Florida marine animal, sea turtles are being affected by an ecosystem on the brink of extinction, made worse by rising water temperatures.
“So there’s no indication that cooling will be going on, and so, with all of that, we’re looking at just continuing this heat stress out. That heat stress is what causes corals to bleach, and if it continues long enough, or is severe enough, causes corals to die,” said Mark Eakin, International Coral Reef Executive Secretary.
Long periods of warm water temperatures cause the algae to release toxic compounds that the coral eject, known as bleaching.
The International Coral Reef Initiative said this is the fourth global bleaching event since 1998.
Bleaching takes away the vibrant colors of the reef and pollutes the surrounding waters, putting the future of the ecosystem in jeopardy.
“Coral reefs aren’t gonna last 50 years. At the rate we’re going, they’re not gonna make it anywhere close to 50 years into the future,” said Melanie McField, Coral Reef Monitoring Network Co-Chair.
Divers at Key Biscayne don’t want to see that prediction come true, They said their mission is something they’re uniquely qualified for and are sticking by.
“As divers, we’re the only ones who can get underwater to clean up our reefs. So, even though we all do pollute the ocean, we’re the ones who have the responsibility to go out there and clean it up,” said Mezzanotte.
At the end of last year’s event, divers collected 750 pounds of debris.
This year, the organization said they collected a total of 1,200 pounds of marine debris.
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