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Is Floatopia Aftermath To Blame For Beach Litter?

Barbara Corbellini Duarte
Floaters at last year's September Floatopia in Miami Beach.

Floatopia is a biannual Miami Beach floaty party that's now causing trouble with Beach officials who say the event leaves behind too much of a mess.

 

The event, which was brought to Miami in 2012 by a group of anonymous volunteers, is organized through social media. Floatopia began in California in 2004 and also takes place in Palm Beach County.

 

The first Miami Floatopia of the year took place on Saturday. That night Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco posted a video on his Facebook page of South Pointe Beach covered in left-behind floaties, cans and other trash at dusk. In the video Grieco insists that "Floatopia will never happen in Miami Beach again."

 

Miami Beach Mayor Phillip Levine also tweeted an aerial photo of the event with the words NEVER AGAIN over the image.

 

In response, Floatopia's organizers released a statement on Facebook condemning the mess.

I spoke to Barbara Duarte, a reporter for the Sun-Sentinel who's photographed Miami's Floatopia since 2014, in order to get some insight as to what could have led to the littering.

 

 

Has the event changed much throughout the times you've gone?

 

I don't remember the event changing much. It's been big since 2014. Every single one I've been to looked kind of the same to me. There's a lot of people, a lot of floaters, a lot of people in the water, a lot of people in the sand. Some of the ones I went to there was even bad weather. One of them was kind of rainy and the water wasn't the usual super flat. But even in those conditions, I always remember seeing that area of Miami Beach packed with people and floaters. Of course, if the weather's better, there's more people. But I remember specifically this one time I went when the weather wasn't that great, and there was still a lot of people there. Which I guess, is impressive.

 

What's the event usually like?

 

To me, Floatopia is not that different from Spring Break. That's what it looks like to me. It's like a giant Spring Break party. The only difference is really the floaters. Everybody brings a floater. It's kind of cute;  it's funny. You see all these different types of floaters, from unicorns to flamingos and whales. But people are doing pretty much what they do on Spring Break. They're partying and drinking on the sand and on the water. They're playing music and dancing. I guess the main difference is there's more people in the water than usual because of the floaters. And sometimes there is this agglomerations of floaters that get together and it looks like one giant thing because it looks like they're all connected from being one next to each other. People bring their water guns and throw water at each other. They bring their cups.

 

 

Credit Barbara Corbellini Duarte / SouthFlorida.com
/
SouthFlorida.com
Floaters at last September's Miami Beach Floatopia.

You see a lot of people drinking in the water, which I guess is not as usual for a regular day at Miami Beach. I've photographed Spring Break and to me Spring Break is the same. You see a bunch of people drinking in the water and out of the water. So I guess it's just a group of young people partying that makes it a little different than just a regular beach day.

 

While photographing Floatopia, have you seen there's a point where it gets out of hand?

 

Mostly you do notice garbage on the beach. And that happens in Spring Break just as much. I'm referring to Spring Break so much because I just shot Spring Break earlier this year and the scene I saw in Fort Lauderdale was very similar to what we saw in this last Floatopia. It's just a lot of garbage on the beach.

 

And you see that the garbage accumulates during the day. It's not something that just happens at the end. You see people drinking their beers and the trash accumulates even in the beginning of the day when they're not that drunk yet. Some people just throw beer on the sand. And even if it's just one can, that's already a problem, right? Because it's on the sand, but it can get washed off into the ocean and if it gets in the ocean, then it can go anywhere and it can damage the animals. I guess what happens is there is an assumption that people will come and pick up after you.

 

This is what I've noticed at Floatopia and at Spring Break. The garbage starts accumulating early in the day. I do know that the people who organize Floatopia try to clean up and make a campaign about it on social media. Before the event, you can read the rules and they ask for people not to throw garbage. So I know there's an effort from the organizers to try and keep it clean. I don't know if maybe they need more volunteers or to hire more people or stay longer. I don't know.

 

 

Credit Michael Grieco
Trash left behind after Saturday's Floatopia on Miami Beach from South Pointe to 10th Street.

Of course you're going to see more garbage on the beach when there's a big event like Floatopia or when there's a bunch of young people partying on Spring Break. But I also don't think it's fair to put this only on young people partying because any day you go to the beach you see people throwing garbage on the sand. It's not something only young people do or only people who are partying do. That happens every day. Locals do it; tourists do it. And of course we don't see as much on a regular day because there's less people. And the people aren't all together in the same place. So it's a little easier to control, maybe it's a little easier to pick it up too. But this idea that we can throw garbage on the beach and people will pick it up after, it doesn't come just from Floatopia or from Spring Break or from young people. People in general just do it. Some people do it; some people don't. But it's something that humans unfortunately do. We don't have as much appreciation for the beach as we should. We think of the beach as our playground, when in reality it's an ecosystem.

 

 

 
 

 
 

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