TAMPA, Fla. — Dozens of electric scooters were once again removed from the Hillsborough River on Tuesday as a part of an annual cleanup effort by environmental non-profit Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful.
There were 32 e-scooters removed from the water, with dozens more presumed to remain below the water's surface.
In the 3rd annual river cleanup, there were more boats, divers, and volunteers ready to get their hands dirty than any previous cleanup. More than a dozen divers from the Tampa Police Department's dive team, FWC, and other local organizations suited up in scuba suits to search for scooters, bikes, and other large river litter.
"I think we continue to need the size and the amount of response we do because we still have a big problem here," Cpt. Al Antolik, the trash-free waters program director for Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, said. "We still have a lot of things that are being found in the river. And a lot of it is the scooters and the e-bikes. So as we have more, we need more resources to get them out."
Over a few hours, dozens of scooters, bikes, and traffic cones were pulled from the water. While boat captains fought Tuesday's wind, divers did their best to navigate the river's murky waters.
"The gloves that we wear are actually encased in Kevlar," Josh Kennedy, a diver with TPD, explained. "That is an anti-cut material, so when you're pulling up these items of trash with barnacles on them, you don't cut your hands. Another thing is there's a lot of vessels out here, other boat traffic. So we want to make sure that we use caution"
In all, 32 scooters, 12 bikes, and 27 traffic cones were removed from the river. Several trash bags were filled with smaller litter items, like a drone, soda and beer cans, and other debris.
Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful said the scooters that are tossed in the water don't end up there because of whoever rode it last. It's after they're left on the sidewalks for long periods of time that they then end up going for a swim.
"And this is not a mistake," Antolik said. "These are not accidentally ending up in the water. This is a malicious act."
Back in November of 2023, the city of Tampa said they were changing the parking requirements for e-scooters. Every ride was meant to start and end at a designated scooter parking location, but that never happened.
"So, you know, it does get expensive for nonprofits to come out and do this," Antolik said. "But somebody has to do it."
Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful spends a lot of money on supplies, like fueling up the boats, ropes, buckets, oxygen for the dive tanks, and other materials.
The city signed on a new scooter vendor late last year. That's why city officials say changing the parking requirements was delayed months. With that delay — dozens more scooters were tossed into the river.
"It doesn't really surprise me," Kennedy, one of the divers, said. "Being in law enforcement, you see generally when people make poor decisions."
E-scooter parking changes are now expected to be implemented across Tampa on Monday, April 1.
Malique Rankin is a general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, X, and Instagram pages.