By Sergeant Bobby Randazzo

Operation F.L.A.R.E. is an acronym that stands for Find, Lift And Restore the Ecology. It all began quite some time ago while I was patrolling our waterways. During my routine inspections of the waterways, I noticed a number of large derelict and abandoned vessels in the area of Sunny Isles Boulevard near the old Sunny Isles Marina. At low tide, all the abandoned property was visible beneath the surface. I could count a number of large objects on the bottom but I could not clearly distinguish exactly what they were. I decided that the objects had to be removed to restore our precious environment. Most of the objects were confined to a small area and resulted in restricting sunlight from hitting the bottom and allowing the ribbon grass to regenerate itself. As a result, FLARE was born.

I began my quest by contacting the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to see if any of these suspect vessels were under investigation. If they were, I would not be able to remove them; thankfully none of them were under investigation. My next stop was to the offices of the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management for approval by them. With that approval, I met with the Department of Environmental Protection for the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve. Next on the list was our Code Enforcement Division. After all those agencies, I was left with putting together a multi-agency task force to Find, Lift and Restore our Ecology.

On Friday morning, May 1st, 2209 at approximately 0900 hours, Operation F.L.A.R.E. went into operation at the St. Tropez Sales Office, located at 330 Sunny Isles Boulevard. We deployed 16 police divers from different agencies including the North Miami Beach Police Department, the Aventura Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI). I also had safety boats provided by Golden Beach, Aventura, the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, Downrite Marine, Inc. and the City of Sunny Isles Beach. Our mission was to remove as much debris as possible from the Intracoastal Waterway to Collins Avenue along Sunny Isles Boulevard.

The divers hit the water and for a solid 5 hours. As a result of our hard work, we recovered 5 abandoned vessels, one that was a small sailboat, a kayak, some huge sections of aluminum fencing, a huge half-round fiberglass box, several large metal boxes, some wooden fencing, a 55-gallon oil drum that was used as a mooring buoy, ropes, pipes, glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic chairs, plastic tables, an abandoned TV, garbage cans, ladders, a radiator coil, lots of tires, a concrete ornate figurine 5 feet tall, a jumbo canvas cover and at ton of other debris. The divers located the objects and tied a line to them. The safety boats came behind and pulled all the debris to shore. On shore, we had a backhoe and a bobcat to assist us with pulling the objects out of the water. All in all, we filled two, 5 foot by 20 foot long dumpsters with trash. By removing the debris, we are allowing more sun-dependent sea grass to grow along that section of the waterway. More sea grass beds, means more stone crabs, blue crabs, spiny lobsters, and reef fish, just to name a few.

An operation of this size and magnitude is not possible without the help of a lot of people. I can’t tell you how pleased I am with all the cooperation I received from everyone involved with Operation FLARE, far too many to name in this short article. Obviously, the operation was a huge success for the city, the environment and our residents. The view of the waterway has to be much improved.