Volunteers clean up large amounts of trash after Gasparilla

After the pirates celebrated a successful Gasparilla Saturday, volunteers spent time Sunday cleaning up all the beads and trash left behind.

Volunteers with the nonprofit Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful worked to clear neighborhoods of beads and trash, while volunteer divers did the same thing underwater. That included divers with Adventure Outfitters, a family-owned business.

Volunteers worked for hours on Sunday to clean up trash on the ground and in the bay following Saturday’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest.

Volunteers worked for hours on Sunday to clean up trash on the ground and in the bay following Saturday’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest.

"We try to get all the trash out of the Bay before the tide brings it out into the ocean," Jenny Blevins with Adventure Outfitters said.

Volunteer divers worked for hours on Sunday to clean up trash left in the bay following Saturday’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest.

Volunteer divers worked for hours on Sunday to clean up trash left in the bay following Saturday’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest.

On Sunday morning alone, Blevins told FOX 13 they found nearly 624 pounds of trash, including 2,000 beads, 200 plastic bottles, 100 jello shots, and 50 rubber duckies.

Volunteers worked for hours on Sunday to clean up trash on the ground and in the bay following Saturday’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest.

Volunteers worked for hours on Sunday to clean up trash on the ground and in the bay following Saturday’s Gasparilla Pirate Fest.

"We see a lot of coins and the hooks from pirates," Blevins added. "Water balloons have been really popular in the last couple of years."

"I think once you're diving and you see what's down there that shouldn't be, it's very hard to just ignore it," diver Hunter Chamberlin said.

It is illegal to throw plastic beads and other litter into the water, according to Florida law. Beads do not decompose.

Gasparilla 2025: Thousands attend the annual Parade of Pirates

"So all those tiny little pieces of rubber and plastic, all the balloons, we always try to take everything out of the water, so that the wildlife doesn't get a hold of it," Blevins said.

These beads are eventually brought to the MacDonald Training Center, a local non-profit that empowers people with disabilities. Those beads will be cleaned and repackaged, so they can be reused at next year’s Gasparilla.

For any pirates who still have their beads and would like to recycle them, there are several places where you can drop them off starting Monday. Click here for more details on those specific locations in Tampa.

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