Tampa Bay Youth Helps Protect Manatees

Zack and his mom pick up trash at the beach.

It all started with reading a book from the library. The Save the Manatee Club logo was on the back of the book and Zack and his mother were curious about our organization and conservation efforts. Zack, 8, and his mother Kathy got online and then they got involved. Zack adopted Vector and received a free towel (our membership perk at the time, and a nice one for Zack!), newsletters, and information about manatees in Tampa Bay.

So naturally, when Zack had to pick a community project for school, he chose to do something to help manatees in Tampa Bay. Each year, manatees and other wildlife are injured or killed by monofilament fishing line and other fishery gear like crab trap line. SMC participates in the Entanglement Working Group, stakeholders finding solutions to the entanglement issue, including supporting monofilament fishing line recycling and marine debris clean up programs. Zack and his mom donned gloves, packed a few garbage bags, and spent a morning picking up trash at Madeira Beach as a part of their own marine debris clean up program. Originally, they focused on monofilament fishing line but amazingly, they didn't find any on the beach. Unfortunately, they did find plenty of other trash that's harmful to wildlife. Typical of beach cleanups, the most common debris item they picked up was cigarette butts..."too many to count," said Kathy. After cleaning up a portion of the beach, Zack gave a talk to his fellow schoolmates about manatees and the many threats they face including marine debris and speeding boats. Soon afterwards, he and his classmates took a field trip to Lowry Park Zoo where they saw manatees being rehabilitated from the very threats Zack taught them about. Conservation starts with the community, and SMC gives Zack two flippers up for his efforts to keep his local area free of harmful marine debris!

To learn more about monofilament recycling, marine debris clean up programs, and what you can do to help, visit the Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program (SMC is one of the participating MRRP organizations) web site at http://www.fishinglinerecycling.org/index.asp

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