Hollywood buddies Ed White and Bill Stuber fish frequently in South Florida’s coastal mangroves and the Intracoastal. Though the friends rarely end their outings empty handed, the yield is never seafood.

“We find all kinds of weird things; computers, tools, beach chairs — even guns,” Bill Stuber said.

In early March, when they kayaked through West Park Lake in Hollywood during the 39th Annual Broward County Waterway Cleanup, they returned to shore with 11 heavy duty plastic bags brimming with trash, including a creepy looking air respiration helmet with face shield, skin protection cloth and dangling air hoses.

Hosted by the Marine Industries Association of South Florida (MIASF) and the Marine Industry Cares Foundation (MICF), the morning event drew 1,500 volunteers who fanned out on foot or aboard 100 boats to 30 lake, beach and canal locations countywide.
From Boy Scout troops to homeowner associations and the all-female South Florida Ladies Let’s Go Fishing club, the volunteers collected 22 tons of trash.

“Our waterways are such an important part of our community. It’s what makes us unique for everyone from people with ties to the marine industry to local residents and tourists who just want to enjoy the water,” said spokeswoman Sharon Abrasion.

Among the trash were scores of vehicle tires, water bottles, a small safe, a cooking stove likely from a small boat, a kitchen sink and a grenade. The Broward Sheriff’s Office was called to the scene immediately to remove the small bomb safely.

About 50 percent more trash was collected from the waterways this year over 2015. Still, MICF Executive Director Gordon Connell said the amount of debris has been decreasing on the average over the past decade.

Boat captain Lee Lavery said her “coolest” find was a 9-foot pole with five empty water bottles attached to the bottom and two long strips of cloth attached to the top.

“I’m thinking it might have been a very primitive buoy and flag that could have come off a Cuban raft. We can only imagine the stories behind the stuff we find.”

In previous years, Connell said, huge amounts of coolers, recreational items and even couches were plucked from banks, shores and low lying water.

“We saw the peak of concern in the early 2000s. Trash was at really high volumes then, but I think people now are definitely aware to a greater degree about their personal responsibility,” Connell said.

Patience Cohn, a boating industry liaison to the MICF, blamed busy hurricane seasons for a large measure of debris found during peak years. Street trash eventually blows or rolls downhill to sea level and the ocean.

These days the mess is mostly litter, Cohn said.

“Trash happens,” she said. “I don’t think most people are intentional but we do have to get out there and clean up.”

A volunteer since 1974, Joan Sheridan of the Lauderdale Isles Civic Improvement Association, said collective work and education are key to cleaner oceans. In 1968, the civic group began their own proactive approach. By 1970 they officially were keeping neighborhood waterways clean via a water management tax district they established to organize and pay for cleanups year round.

At first, the Lauderdale Isles group filled two of the largest county dumpsters to overflowing. Included were motorcycles, home safes, and everything under the sun that ended up underwater. This year, they barely filled a quarter of one dumpster.

“That’s what I register as a sign that people are caring more,” Sheridan said. “But the problem is not over.”

The group provides Broward students with hands-on learning opportunities, including magnet marine programs at New River Middle School in Fort Lauderdale and South Broward High School in Hollywood.

“My first question to students is, ‘where does water come?’ and most of them say ‘the faucet.’ That’s when they learn about the aquifer and how when we dump trash into the water it poisons all of it,” Sheridan said.

Bill Stuber, born and raised in Hollywood, said people should just pick up after themselves.

“We look forward to the clean up days but for us, the cleanups are everyday. People who pollute should stop being idiots,” Stuber said.