Miami Police Marine Patrol took NBC6 out on Tuesday to get a look at how the four spoil islands fared over the weekend after being temporarily closed to the public.
Two groups of people were spotted: a group of kayakers at Morningside Island and a family at Pace Picnic Island. Both left after warnings.
But Lt. Oriel Tameron said people heeded the warnings to stay off the islands over the holiday weekend.
“They listened, they did not come to these islands as we can see here in the background, the islands are clean how we left them, you see the nature, you see the birds,” Tameron said.
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Mother Nature was able to hit the reset button on Pace Picnic Island, Osprey Island, Willis Island and Morningside Island.
Last week NBC6 showed the mess left behind on Picnic Island in a video that went viral. The city was forced to close all four islands because of the overwhelming amounts of trash left behind by careless boaters.
“Unfortunately, every single time you come here, especially at the beginning of the week, you see thousands of pounds of trash which obviously did not happen this weekend,” Tameron said.
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Not only was it great for the environment, but because of the closure, the Miami Police Marine Patrol was able to focus its enforcement efforts in other areas.
“I didn’t have to keep an officer here permanently on the island watching everybody here, we were able to go out into the community into the entire Biscayne Bay and enforce maritime laws,” Tameron said.
As a result, on Saturday and Sunday combined, Miami PD issued 260 citations. Tameron said that’s nearly double what they’ve issued in previous years.
The City of Miami Director of Communications Kenia Fallat said their messaging to keep off the islands over Memorial Day Weekend worked.
They’re now working to figure out how to keep the islands clean.
“We want people to enjoy these islands, but we want them to do it in a safe and clean manner,” she said.
The city said right now it’s in assessment mode, but the message is clear and to the point, there’s a zero-tolerance policy for leaving your trash behind.
“We’re going to be able to better inform people by not just educating but showing them that we have zero tolerance,” said Fallat.
The islands will remain closed until further notice.
