When thinking of the idea of Marco the first thing that comes to mind is a tropical beach paradise, but recently that has not been the case. Beaches are being littered with trash and taken care of poorly. The Marco beaches need more help than they are given to live up to the illusion of paradise. Being on a small island, there are only a handful of activities for teens. As seen in an MIA class poll, it can be shown that 24.8% of students say they go to the beach once a week and 21.8% say they go 3-5 times a week out of 101 students. When talking to students, most of the plans for the weekend consist of the beach. Speaking of how often students go to the beach, there should be more restrictions on the trash and keep the beaches clean with this upcoming winter break introducing the snowbirds to Marco Island beaches.
Marco Island has many beach accesses on Marco Island, some being residents for locals only and the south beach being available to locals and non-locals with many hotels and condos places on the beach or around for local and tourist attractions. But there have been problems when tourists come down in season leaving trash all over the beaches and making the beach less enjoyable to locals. With this problem, it can be seen that when asked if the beach should only be accessible to locals the poll shows 72.3% think the beaches should be open to everyone. But when asked an open question on the pole on whether students have had a negative experience with the beach there were many responses concerning trash left around the beach or trash cans left around the hotel area, residence beach, and the south beach area overflowing with trash and garbage. Leaving many upset with the way the Marco beaches are being treated.
When asked in the poll how often beach clean-ups should be done, 31% said once a week. While MIA’s Key Club helps with these beach cleanups, it’s not enough for the amount of trash that is dispersed all around the beach area frequently. Common trash has been seen on the beaches and it consists of plastic bags, plastic straws, glass, and more. While the glass law decrees glass on the beach illegal, some people disagree with the strict law. The city of Marco Island website states, “It shall be unlawful for any person while on the beach or beach access areas to possess or utilize any glass bottle or container.” When asked in the poll “If you agree with the glass laws on Marco”, an outstanding 90.1% said yes.
The overwhelming amount of trash not only makes the beach less enjoyable for locals but also for animals as well. The aquatic and land animals are left negatively affected, such as the migrating birds including the wilson, red knots, and reddish egrets, as well as least terns, roseate spoonbills, piping, snowy plovers, and magnificent frigatebirds. When asking MIA students in the pole if the strict restrictions on birds are necessary 59.4% agreed with the restrictions. Many of these birds that migrate come from long distances leaving to be tiresome but with the addition of people running through the birds and dogs scaring them off, they have less time to rest for the rest of their trip. When asked in the poll if dogs should be allowed to go on beaches, 47.5% answered in some cases yes. These cases would be service dogs that are needed to benefit the owner’s well-being.
Overall, it can be seen that the city of Marco Island is trying to help to better Marco beaches by implementing laws and making restrictions on dogs along with the protection of birds. While yes, these issues need to be taken care of, the main issue for Marco Island beaches is trash. With multiple complaints of overflowing trash cans and plastic bags flowing around on the beaches, there still have been no precautions or restrictions on plastic on beaches. Not only affects the look of the beach but also the health of the wildlife both land and water being effective. To better Marco beaches it is necessary to take percussion on plastic seriously with the addition of more beach clean-ups to ensure the safety of marine life.
