Every once in a while, the stars align, chance encounters occur and good things fall into place.
Such was the case when Yvette Mira-Talbott, president of the Key West Rotary Club, ran into Capt. Brian Vest, who launched the Conch Republic Marine Army in the devastating wake of Hurricane Irma in 2019. What started with an earnest Facebook post offering to help clean up the debris-filled canals and coastlines around Big Pine has become an army of several hundred volunteers removing tons – yes, tons – of trash, debris, appliances and plastics from the nearshore waters around the Middle and Lower Keys on a near-weekly basis.
Mira-Talbott invited Vest to speak at a recent Rotary Club meeting. Scott Mayer, a Rotarian and local boat broker, was there, and when someone asked Vest what the organization needed, Mayer started thinking.
“Brian told the Rotary crowd that he wanted to set up operations down here in Key West, but his biggest problem was finding a slip for a Conch Republic Marine Army boat,” Mayer told the Keys Weekly on April 30. “He said he couldn’t even get a marina to call him back. I started thinking, ‘Holy shit, here’s a guy who has made it his mission to clean the marine environment with volunteers in boats and kayaks. Maybe I could help.’”
Mayer has been friends with Mitch Walsh, general manager of the Perry Marina, for years, since Walsh was a dockhand and dockmaster at the marina, which has 288 slips.
“His career has certainly grown, and within five minutes of my conversation with him about the Conch Republic Marine Army, Mitch said, ‘Done. It’s a no-brainer. And if it’s something that you, Rotary, the sheriff and Capt. Dave Dipre of FWC all support, then this is absolutely a good thing,’” Mayer recalled.
Within a week, the Perry Marina had arranged to donate a slip and shoreside utilities for the CRMA’s 30-foot boat, a donation that Mayer estimated is worth about $35,000 a year.
And as part of the partnership, CRMA has agreed to help the Perry Marina clean the water around the property, which fills with sargassum and trash during the summer winds.
“Everyone and everything just came together so perfectly,” Mayer said. “This is what I love about Rotary and about Key West. And I told Brian that he’ll have zero trouble finding volunteers from Key West for the cleanups around here.”
Since 2019, those volunteers have come from near and far to help, either physically or financially.
“We do not back down, nor do we quit,” Vest said in the beginning, when Irma’s wounds were still raw and its damage still daunting. “When we see neighbors who need assistance, we help. Unconditionally. And so an army was created. An army of people, both from within the (Conch) Republic and outside our borders, have come together to restore what Irma took away, and to make everyone’s lives a little better.”
That commitment — and the army itself — have only grown stronger.
“Fifty-four miles done, only 900 more to go,” Vest said during a cleanup last month off Marathon.
The CRMA in February partnered with Isla Bella Resort in Marathon, where one of its boats now takes locals and visitors on conservation cleanup trips.
And the latest vessel to enter this military’s service will be stationed on Stock Island, thanks to the generosity of the Perry Marina and the support of the Key West Rotary.
“Key West is in huge need of an ocean cleanup and this is the best launching pad there is,” the CRMA posted recently on its Facebook page. “It’s a game changer, now we need donations to help staff on the boat. Key West and surrounding islands are buried in trash. Let’s get serious about cleaning up 50 years of neglect. It starts now, and we’re not stopping. Join us; we need you.”Visit conchrepublicmarinearmy.org for more information.
