Picnic Island Cleanup

Name: Picnic Island Cleanup
Start: 2026-04-12T09:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-04-12T12:00:00-04:00
Location: 4556 S Manhattan Ave Suite E, Tampa, FL, United States, Florida 33611

Schedule

Sun Apr 12 2026 at 09:00 am to 12:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

4556 S Manhattan Ave Suite E, Tampa, FL, United States, Florida 33611 | Tampa, FL

We would love to have you volunteer for our FREE cleanup on April 12! We need kayakers, shore, and diver volunteers! Please RSVP with us on our website: https://adventuretampa.com/scuba-diving-calendar/.
Globally, annual plastic production has boomed from 1.7 million tons in 1950 to over 300 million. As much as 250 million metric tons of plastic could make its way into the ocean by 2025. The environmental damage caused by plastic debris alone is estimated at $13 billion a year. Locally, our waters are affected by a wide array of substances, including sewage, industrial waste, agricultural runoff containing fertilizers and pesticides, plastics, debris, and oil spills. These pollutants contaminate rivers, lakes, oceans, and our groundwater.
As scuba divers, we are highly invested in the beauty and conservation of our oceans and waterways. Approximately six to eight times a year, Adventure Outfitters partners with our loyal volunteers and Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful to clean up Tampa Bay’s inner-coastal and inner-Bay waterways including Ballast Point Park, Picnic Island, Marjorie Park on Davis Island, Garrison Channel, the Hillsborough River, and the Old Gandy Bridge in Tampa Bay that are the gateways to our oceans. Our most popular clean-up is the Gasparilla Krewe Clean-Up held the day after the Gasparilla parade. We usually pick up thousands of beads that were thrown in our waterways. We are committed to not only cleaning up our waterways, but to educating our community on safer disposal practices of our daily debris usage.
About Community Clean Up Program:
Our program started in August 2014 completing several cleanup dives, collecting more than 5,000 pounds of debris and recycling materials. As of early 2026, we have performed over 100 clean up dives in the Tampa Bay area and have taught other dive shops and groups how to sponsor clean up dives. In addition to cleaning up local dive sites, we distribute our data surveys to Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful for long-term analysis and research. We rely on our loyal volunteers that brave the poor visibility, to help us clean up these sites. Without them, we would not be able to continually improve our community of unsightly debris and create a safer haven for our local aquatic flora and fauna.
We encourage you to participate in our Clean Up course that offers several benefits including:
Educating you about the marine debris issue. You will learn what damage has already been done, where ocean debris originates and how you can be an active part of the solution not the problem.
Equipping you with the knowledge and skills needed to conduct a clean-up dive (what type of debris that was collected). You will learn how to create a dive profile and make effective decisions on what to remove and what to leave behind. We collect, sort, tally, weigh, properly dispose and/or recycle the debris, and lastly report our findings to Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful.
Throughout the course you will gain a detailed understanding of what issues debris causes in the underwater environment. After the course is complete, you will be empowered to participate in ongoing clean-up dives near you or even start one of your own!
The valuable data you submit as part of these clean-up dives will help to support the development and implementation of local policies that will improve solid waste management at all levels in the Tampa Bay area.
It’s Fun!
Participating in our clean-up dives allows you to meet new dive buddies and to learn and practice valuable dive skills. If you are new to clean-up dives, we always pair you with either a very experienced clean-up diver and/or a dive professional. You will practice diving in limited visibility, practice neutral buoyancy in shallow water, buddy communication, multi-tasking and diving in poorer conditions such as colder water temperature in the winter. In addition to collecting and managing the debris, we also include prizes for the most unique items, a kayaker prize and several more for the hard work of our volunteers! We also provide discounted air fills, tank rentals, and we discount rental gear for our volunteers.
Who is Affected by Marine Debris:
Over 650 marine species; 100% of marine turtles; 20% of all seabirds; approximately 50% of all marine mammal species; human health and our economy; damages and destroys precious hard and soft corals, sponges and anemones; damages recreational and commercial vessels; local fisherman; and affects the beauty of our Florida beaches and shores.
Both divers and non-divers can help end this problem by picking up debris before it floats out and deposits on the ocean floor where it can’t be retrieved. When you participate in clean-up dives, you are diving for positive change. You make the ocean safer for marine life, the data you collect helps inform policy makers to improve waste management by helping convince individuals, governments and businesses to act on marine debris. Your voice and actions can change public opinion, behavior and public policies so less trash is dumped in the environment and handled properly.
Our long-term data give the best results. They build a more convincing argument for change and help identify local seasonal trends, such as those caused by weather patterns, tourist seasons, industries, holidays and/or events. Our long-term data has shown that holiday events will cause a surge in garbage accumulation on land, then it gets blown into the water. If it doesn’t get picked up immediately, it will be sunk in the water forever.
We need both divers and non-divers alike, you can either volunteer as a scuba diver, shore personnel (picking up debris from the surface of the water and land/beach), debris data collector, and/or a kayaker. Kayakers assist and alert the divers in the water. If you are a single diver, no worries, we will always pair you with a dive buddy. All volunteers and families are welcome! If you are a student and need community service hours, we sign off on all school volunteer paperwork.
All clean-up dives occur on a Sunday morning.
2026 CLEANUP SCHEDULE*
Feb 1 - Garrison Channel – Gasparilla Klean Up Krewe
April 12 - Picnic Island Fishing Pier
June 7 - Garrison Channel – on Bayshore Blvd.
August 9 - Julian B. Lane Park
October 18 - Picnic Island Fishing Pier
December 20 - Julian B. Lane Park
*More to be added throughout the year – please check in with the shop for additional dates.
If you haven’t been to a clean-up dive and are interested, please stop by the shop for more information. We would love to have you join us! Groups are encouraged to attend!