Andrew Otazo, Trash Diver
Tony WintonJuly 29, 2019
Andrew Otazo grew up on Key Biscayne, and his work has ranged from helping a Mexican president to being a playwright. But if you want to find him, walk to the beach or Bear Cut, and look for a man hauling trash out of the ocean.
We spoke to him about his passion.
Key News: Why do you do this?
It’s my hobby. It’s what I do for fun. In January of 2018, I pulled 8,070 pounds of trash from Key Biscayne and vicinity – most of it from Bear Cut.
KN: And you saw a passion start?
I got into trash cleanup. I have always loved the mangroves, I would just look around and say, ‘It’s gorgeous, but it’s marred by all this trash.’ Every square foot. It was hideous. Once it gets consumed – it’s mistaken for food— it goes up the food chain.
KN: And no one else was picking up trash?
Crandon (Park) has their hands full, they don’t have the staff. And I’m an open ocean swimmer – literally from the lighthouse to the fossilized reef, along the eastern coastline of Key Biscayne. And I would swim by lobster traps. Some of them have been there for decades.
KN: What are the biggest, strangest things you’ve retrieved?
I brought out the side of a boat from a Louisiana city in 2010. It was massive – 12 by 5 feet. I found a dinghy. You name it – car tires, multiple shipwrecks, everything. An insane amount of clothes – a lot of underwear, for some reason. Even unexploded ordnance from World War II.
KN: What about, um, people?
I’m dreading finding either drugs or body parts. This being Miami, after all.
KN: Ever think of making this a group effort?
The vast majority of time, it’s just me.