Katelyn Cucinotta joins an Earth Day beach cleanup at Ocean Inlet Park.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
Katelyn Cucinotta was walking on the beach after surfing not far from her Briny Breezes home a few years ago when she came across several pieces of trash that appeared to have floated ashore.
What Cucinotta found — a burlap sack, a clothes hanger and some clothing — led her to become a fierce and tireless advocate of preventing debris from making it into the oceans and being washed ashore.
“There’s not a single day I’ve spent in the ocean when I haven’t found debris,” Cucinotta says. “There’s always trash in the water.”
Cucinotta, 23, is leading the charge to get the word out about the negative impact debris can have on marine ecosystems — including marine life ingestion of plastics and reef damage. It’s all part of her work on behalf of the Sea to Shore Alliance, a Florida-based, international nonprofit research and conservation organization that hired her about a year ago to create and manage its Healthy Habitats and Oceans — or H2O — program.
Finding time to share her experiences and advocate for cleaner oceans isn’t easy for Cucinotta, since she is in school to earn a master’s degree in marine and coastal studies while working a few days a week as a student technician for Palm Beach County’s Environmental Resources Management department.
But helping others understand the damage caused by marine debris is not just a priority for Cucinotta, it’s a passion.
“I’m a scientist but I enjoy bridging the conversation between scientists and the community,” she said.
Since joining the Sea to Shore Alliance, Cucinotta has developed plans for a mobile classroom for students and adults that will highlight the impact sea trash has on marine life and coastal environments.
The group already has a 27-foot-long bus, but finding money to outfit it is proving to be a challenge for Cucinotta — who aside from everything else she’s doing, has taken the lead in fundraising.
In all, she says, the Sea to Shore Alliance needs about $20,000 to outfit the bus with exhibits that will explain how sea turtles can get entangled in debris, the impact of ingestion of trash has on marine life and an explanation of gyres, five areas in the ocean where swirling current come together to create giant floating trash piles.
Plans are already in the works to bring the bus to schools in Broward County and to local festivals, once it is outfitted.
Cucinotta says that through education, she is helping to raise awareness and at the same time being an advocate for the ocean and the creatures who inhabit it.
“Sea turtles can’t speak up for themselves,” she said. “It’s up to us to provide a voice for all the seas.”
Speaking on behalf of the environment is nothing new for Cucinotta, who grew up on the beaches of South Florida diving, snorkeling and surfing.
While a student at Park Vista High School, she led an effort by the ecology club to bring recycling to the Boynton Inlet and led a couple of student cleanups.
She even remembers being flabbergasted seeing a large television set floating in the Intracoastal Waterway when she was just 8 or 9.
“There was no excuse for it being there,” she said.
It was that walk along the beach three years ago, however, when she found the sack and clothing that got her really fired up about removing marine trash. She started an Instagram campaign using #Take4Florida that encourages others to remove four pieces of litter and send photos.
The response was unexpected and broader than anything she had anticipated.
“I was inspired to continue this fight when I saw that the hashtag was being used around the world,” she said.
To learn more or to contribute to the fundraising campaign, visit www.sea2shore.org/h2o
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