Garbage that comes from people dropping it wherever they please is especially disturbing when eyed on the beach, while swimming in the sea or boating inland waterways.

While South Florida obviously isn’t the only region dealing with marine litter, our environment is impacted in unique ways. For example, fishing gear, such as hooks and lines and debris from lobster traps cause damage to coral reefs, according to the Caribbean Environment Program study on solid waste and marine litter. Migrating animals may then transport debris in the ocean to new areas, disturbing the ecosystem.

“Nobody’s watching and there is no law enforcement,” said Tanya Tweeton, volunteer organizer of the Southeast Florida Sierra Marine and Water Quality Team, started in 2012 to study local marine and water quality issues.

There is also the problem of ghost fishing, when fish are accidentally caught in abandoned or lost fishing gear, nets and pots. According to a 2005 report from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, ghost fishing accounts for the annual loss of $250 million of marketable lobster.

The good news is the ongoing efforts to counteract neglect. Cities regularly organize volunteers dedicated to getting rid of the garbage. As the Waterfront Times was going to press in late October, the city of Fort Lauderdale had planned dozens of cleanups, including two taking place along the beach, on Oct. 25 for Make a Difference Day.

Hollywood holds a beach and waterfront cleanup on the second Saturday of every month from 7 to 11 a.m. Volunteers meet at Charnow Park to collect litter and cigarette butts.

In Pompano Beach, the city’s Adopt A Beach program puts volunteers of varying ages together to spruce up waterfront areas.

Garbage pileup, wherever it occurs, is completely unnecessary if people were just more mindful about disposing trash or taking it home with them for recycling and garbage pickup, say those involved in cleanups.

Tweeton, of the Southeast Florida Sierra Marine and Water Quality Team, is fighting for a cleaner region. Her group is currently preparing a list of solutions to be presented at the end of November to the Coastal Ocean Task Force, a four-county South Florida organization formed to deal with the rise in sea levels.

“The Coast Guard should be more involved, as should marinas,” she said. “They should have colorful recycling bins with lids. All marinas should have pumpout stations. We’re asking marinas to give short classes to boaters on dos and don’ts. We all need to be involved. There should be more public outreach.”

Tweeton would like people going to the beach and on recreational boats to be more mindful. If they were, she says, volunteers in area beach clean-ups wouldn’t be filling trash bags with cigarettes, plastic bags, glass bottles, poly-styrene foam food containers, cans and paper bags.

Jeff Torode of dive outfit, South Florida Diving Headquarters in Pompano Beach, agrees.

“Plastic bottles are the worst because they don’t break down, at least in our lifetime,” he says.

“I live on the water, so I see a lot of litter at the end of the canal, including fishing lines. Garbage can come in with the tide and end up in the Intracoastal Waterway and vice-versa.”