Andrew Otazo, Trash Diver

Andrew Otazo holds trash he retrieved from the ocean off Key Biscayne, July 18, 2019. Otazo’s hobby is to free dive the waters near the island to remove trash.

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.