The “krewe” at Suzuki Marine USA knows the value of celebrating Florida’s heritage and having a great time. It also knows the importance of cleaning up afterwards and leaving the environment better than they found it.
For years now, this has been the guiding philosophy behind Suzuki’s global CLEAN OCEAN PROJECT, and it could be seen in action during a recent collaborative clean-up event following the 2025 Gasparilla Festival. This annual day full of pirate krewes, parade floats and fun, is all about celebrating fictional (or legendary, depending whom you ask) swashbuckler Jose Gaspar, who lived and ransacked towns and shipping around Tampa Bay and the West Coast of Florida for some 40 years. Throngs of people spend the day partying, celebrating Gaspar’s legend, and “pillaging” through the streets of Tampa. And like any time large crowds of people gather, there is usually quite a bit of trash left in their wake — including plastic bottles and copious amounts of plastic beads that fashionable pirates are so fond of wearing.
Fortunately, there were ready teams of volunteers ready to jump into action to clean up after the revelry. Towards that end, the staff at Suzuki Marine teamed up with hometown favorites the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and non-profit organization Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful to spend a full Sunday making Tampa’s streets and coastline pristine again.
Together, hundreds of volunteers teamed up to clean streets, beaches and even under the water. By the end of Sunday’s event, more than 624 pounds of trash were collected for proper disposal, recycling, or re-use. This “bounty” included 2,000 plastic beads, 200 plastic bottles, 100 Jello shots and 50 rubber duckies. Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful gathers all the collected beads and turns the over to be cleaned up and repurposed for sale during the next “pirate invasion.”
Reducing plastic waste and removing it from the water and coastal environment has been an important directive for Suzuki Marine for many years. Suzuki is the only outboard motor manufacturer to feature micro plastic collecting devices built into the cooling system of certain popular horsepower models, allowing boaters to be part of the solution to this pervasive pollution problem.
“Much of the plastic trash left on land eventually makes its way into the water through storm drain systems, where it breaks down over years to become micro plastic pollution,” said Brandon Cerka, General Manager Sales and Marketing for Suzuki Marine USA. “This is why we focus on not only collecting trash along beaches and waterways all year long, but also finding ways our business can increase recycling and reduce the amount of plastic packaging and shipping materials we use. The strategy is two-pronged, to reduce plastics at the source and to clean it up whenever and wherever we can,” Cerka added.
Suzuki Marine is a Pewter Partner with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has used this valuable partnership to expand the scope and reach of its clean-up activities and to help promote the philosophies behind its CLEAN OCEAN PROJECT initiative. “Suzuki Marine is all about the water and the lifestyle of enjoying family time in the Great Outdoors. We want to ensure this legacy for future generations to enjoy,” Cerka added.
About Suzuki Marine
Suzuki is a leading manufacturer of 4-stroke outboard motors ranging from the ultra-portable 2.5 horsepower to the flagship DF350 V-6 with contra-rotating dual propellers. Over the years, Suzuki outboards have won nine Innovation Awards from the National Marine Manufacturer’s Association (NMMA) for motors as small as 25 horsepower, demonstrating Suzuki’s commitment to making the best technology available to the widest possible audience. Over the past few years, Suzuki Marine USA opened a U.S. Marine Technical Center in Panama City, Florida and moved to a new corporate headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to be closer to the heart of the U.S. boating industry and boating capital of the country. Through its CLEAN OCEAN PROJECT, regional cleanup and habitat restoration efforts around the world, and company-wide plastic waste reduction efforts, Suzuki has demonstrated a commitment to protecting coastal and marine habitat at home and around the world.
