FRED MAYS
All materials needed for the cleanup are provided by the
chapter, including water for the volunteers, according to
event chairman Jay Whelan.
with the Marine Resource Council, the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection, and
the Brevard Indian River Lagoon Coalition.
“Some sites are consistently bad,” Buchness
says, “others are good.”
In particular, sites in the Indian River Lagoon
score poorly.
“Bacteria counts along the beaches tend to be
lower,” he explains.
He points to the monitoring site at Sebastian
Inlet as a good water quality example. They
monitor about a half dozen sites for a year,
then move on to new locations.
By far the chapter’s main focus is on the beach
environment. Chairman Jay Whelan says the
public is invited to pick up litter along Brevard
beaches the fourth Saturday of each month.
Locations are published on the chapter’s
Facebook page.
“We provide all the materials to pick up
trash,” says Whelan, “and that includes water
for the volunteers.”
Local business and civic groups often participate
in the cleanups, some from as far away as
Orlando. They typically get a turnout of 10-20
volunteers, and sometimes as many as 50.
The Surfriders are also mindful of how
groundwater discharge pollutes waterways,
particularly in the lagoon. They support the
planting of ocean friendly gardens, which use
native plants that require little or no fertilizer,
and therefore reduce contaminated runoff >>
SPRING 2022: 61
SURFRIDER SPACE COAST
The Surfriders hold a beach cleanup every fourth Saturday of the month.
SURFRIDER SPACE COAST
The group is trying to encourage local restaurants to reduce or stop using plastic items, which are
the No. 1 litter problem on Brevard beaches.