FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — People are back at the beach and so is the pollution.
"Would you say there's more litter and garbage than there was pre-pandemic?" First Coast News asked Kevin Brown, who works with Beaches Sea Turtle Patrol and is a marine science teacher.
"Oh absolutely," he said. "I walked for 45 seconds which was roughly about 20 to 25 yards. All I saw were these plastics all over the place."
Brown says with no one at the beach in April he didn't see any trash. Then people returned and so did the litter, though he believes it isn't the locals leaving the it behind to hurt the environment and the animals.
"When we find dead sea birds you can find little piles of plastic around the carcass," Brown said. "We pulled a straw out of the nostril of a sea turtle a couple years ago, I mean a complete straw."
Conservation groups are doubling down and the Amelia Island Beach and Marine Life Conservancy just started recruiting volunteers this week. The job is literally a walk on the beach.
"Pick a time between 5:30 and 8:30 p.m. to go down and walk along the beach," explained Shari Roan, an Amelia Island Beach and Marine Life Conservancy beach ambassador volunteer. "Wear gloves, we carry a bucket and a grabber."
Every day on Amelia Island volunteers say they fill five-gallon buckets with litter they've picked up.
"It's disturbing because when you look at the beach from a distance it looks beautiful," she said. "And our beaches are beautiful, they're a treasure. But when you start walking along it's amazing how much trash there is on the beach. A lot of plastic, small wrappers, straws, cigarette butts."
Brown says at the beaches in Duval County, there are 80 access points to the beach and they all have trash cans. There are also dozens of groups on the First Coast that pick up litter regularly.
Roan says they're working to change the culture through education and conversations when they're on their litter routes.
"[It] causes people to think a little bit more about looking around before you leave the beach," said Roan.
Learn how to become a beach ambassador with Amelia Island Beach and Marine Life Conservancy here.