Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
November 6, 2020
Amelia Island Beach and Marine Life Conservancy Co-Chair David Francis provided an update on the Beach Ambassador’s Divisions’ activities at the November 4, 2020 Regular Meeting of the Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC).
Francis reminded Commissioners that the Beach Ambassador Program is the island’s only organized, coordinated environmental initiative focused on protecting marine life and shorebirds through nightly beach clean-ups and education. The group was formed in 2018 and conducts cleanups at 5 major beach accesses from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekends.
During 2020, the 73 volunteers, each of whom commit to work one evening per week, devoted more than 800 hours to picking up more than 303 5-gallon buckets of trash from the tidal zone. Volunteers collected items from the tidal zone (“wet sand”) before the night high tide would carry them into the ocean.
Both City Commission Candidate David Sturges and City Commissioner Mike Lednovich recounted their experiences as beach volunteers, encouraging others to join in the efforts to save birds and sea creatures from the environmental perils of plastics and other waste products that hurt wildlife.
For more information, visit their websits: www.aibmlc.com.