| What is the Pinellas Marine Litter
Patrol?
It is a program to register volunteers with canoes, kayaks, and shallow bottom
boats who express interest in helping to remove litter and marine debris from
our bayous, coastal waterways, and spoil islands in Pinellas County.
How
does it work?
Registered volunteers will be periodically notified of planned cleanups and
locations needing volunteers.
Registered volunteers, after initial cleanup, will receive a Pinellas
Marine Litter Patrol (PMLP) membership certificate and decal for their
boat(s). PMLP
members will then receive a special PMLP sitcker for each cleanup thereafter.
Their name will also be entered into a semi-annual drawing for each cleanup
they participate in for numerous sponsor prizes.
Keep Pinellas Beautiful will provide all volunteers with pickers, containers,
bags, gloves, insect spray, sunscreen, and chilled water.
What
are the benefits?
All PMLP members will be listed on the Keep Pinellas Beautiful
web site, www.keeppinellasbeautiful.org, plus receive other
recognition.
Why
this new program?
Most of our urban litter flows from our roadways into the
storm drains during heavy rains. A percentage of Pinellas
storm channels do not filter out this
waste stream. Therefore it is only a matter time before this "trash" ends
up, in many cases, on our beaches.
This trash then causes both an economical and environmental impact on our
county.
Littered beaches and shorelines have a direct impact to our tourism industry.
The environmental impact is harder to see but it does severe damage to
our natural environment, injuring or killing our marine and wild life,
while
polluting both
land and water.
Our appreciation to our PMLP Members. |
