The 4th of July was damaging to the bird and marine populations in the Suncoast area. A skimmer was one of roughly 20 birds that were part of the “Save Our Sea Birds” and suffered some sort of injury after finding itself on the course of the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix race. Dolphins, manatees and turtles were all also seen on the course. Mote Marine dealt with a pair of incidents regarding manatees, but none were hurt. A number of sea turtles were found dead during the weekend.

Overall during the holiday time, beaches across Sarasota County were kept pretty clean and then Wednesday a couple of hundred volunteers hauled off trash as part of Keep Sarasota County Beautiful. The volunteers started at six in the morning cleaning up numerous beaches, including Siesta Key. Beachgoers were given trash bags to use to clean up after themselves and it was estimated that 160 tons of litter and waste were taken off the beach throughout the entire weekend.