Surfrider Foundation cleans Jacksonville Beach on World Oceans Day

JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – Volunteers with Surfrider Foundation celebrated World Oceans Day by combing Jacksonville Beach picking up trash.

World Oceans Day is a global celebration designed to protect the oceans and their futures as well as raise awareness on how they regulate the climate and affect our foods and air. 

“It’s very crucial that we keep our oceans clean 'cause there’s no blue, there’s no green,” volunteer Cailla Strobel said. “So, in order to keep our oceans healthy, to keep food on our plates, to keep air clean, we really need to make sure that we’re not only littering on land -- or, but also littering our oceans, could all end up in the same place at one point.”

After collecting the trash found Saturday on Jacksonville Beach, the volunteers separated the trash into recyclable and non-recyclable waste piles. 

“Every bit of plastic that’s ever been produced is still here today. So, what happens is that plastic water bottle that you throw away or litter, it breaks down into tinier, tinier, tinier pieces and those are called micro-plastics,” Cailla said. "And micro-plastics are especially bad for our oceans because due to their small size, they can easily be mistaken as fish food. So, then you have fish in the oceans ingesting these plastics and then humans eat fish as well, so we’re in-taking that plastic."

The First Coast volunteers found several glass and plastic bottles, cigarette butts, candy wrappers and more.