On October 19, boats will launch from Los Muertos Pier with a different kind of catch in mind. Instead of dorado or marlin, teams will “fish” for the junk that chokes Banderas Bay—plastic bottles, Styrofoam, even bulky debris that drifts in after storms. Organized by the civil association Limpia tu Mar Puerto Vallarta, the Puerto Vallarta trash fishing tournament turns cleanup into a competition and funnels entry fees back into year-round brigades. It’s hands-on, immediate, and open to locals and visitors who want their morning on the water to leave the bay better than they found it.
The second International Trash Fishing Tournament will take place on Saturday, October 19, centered at Los Muertos Pier in Puerto Vallarta, with boats fanning across Bahía de Banderas to remove floating debris. Organizers frame the day as both action and education: a high-energy cleanup that doubles as a community lesson about what ends up in our waters and why it matters.
Teams compete from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. across multiple categories—PET plastics, glass, Styrofoam, non-recyclables, and bulky items—with a special nod to the day’s most original team. The format is simple, visible, and easy to understand: whoever hauls the most, wins, and the winners show the rest of us what’s actually floating out there.
Puerto Vallarta trash fishing
The entry fee is 5,000 pesos per team. That money isn’t a sunk cost—it underwrites cleanup brigades after the tournament has packed up. Registration includes a boat, two trash-catching nets, protective gloves, trash bags, and official tournament T-shirts so every crew looks and works like a unit. For many would-be volunteers, that kit removes the most significant barrier to participating: access to a safe vessel and the right gear.
The call is open to everyone: neighbors who know these waters, students who want field experience, businesses willing to sponsor a crew, and civil groups that have spent years picking bottles off beaches. Puerto Vallarta’s cleanup culture runs on that mix—locals with patience, visitors with energy, and institutions that lend a hand when it counts.
How the tournament works on the water
Boats spread out through the bay, targeting obvious trash lines and eddies where floating debris collects. Captains and team leads help crews work safely and efficiently, then return to the pier where weights and categories are tallied. It’s not glamorous; it is practical. Every bag that comes off a boat is one less hazard in the water column, one less eyesore on the surface, and one less risk to propellers, nets, and wildlife.
The scoring system rewards the tedious stuff—PET bottles and foam—because that’s what dominates the floating mix after heavy rains. It also records large objects, the things that go viral in photos: tires, fragments of appliances, the occasional water tank. Those outsized finds remind everyone that river basins don’t end at the beach; they end in the sea.
Why this cleanup matters in Banderas Bay
Banderas Bay is one of Mexico’s key humpback whale breeding and calving grounds in winter. Entanglement in marine debris and lost gear is a documented risk for whales worldwide, and cutting that risk starts with removing what’s floating before it snags anything alive. Sea turtles—common along this coast during nesting season—face their own hazards from plastic ingestion and entanglement. Cleanups aren’t a cure-all, but they reduce immediate threats in a place where wildlife and people share the same water.
The timing also makes sense locally. Studies and local campaigns have highlighted how rainy-season runoff carries plastic and other waste from rivers like the Cuale and Pitillal directly into the bay. That’s why surface trash peaks after storms, and why a fleet of small boats with nets can make a visible dent in a single morning.
Registration, capacity, and who’s behind it
Limpia tu Mar Puerto Vallarta A.C., the group behind the tournament, runs year-round brigades across the bay, on beaches, and along rivers. For the event, the call invites local and international participants, schools, businesses, and civil organizations. The cap is 40 teams, with registration closing September 30, and organizers will publish contact details for crews and sponsors. If you have hands, a few friends, and half a day, you have what they need.
Beyond the five-hour push, the group emphasizes continuity: the tournament is a fundraiser and a megaphone. It trains first-timers, networks regulars, and keeps the focus on the everyday work of keeping trash out of the water in the first place.
What last year proved
In its first edition in 2024, the tournament drew dozens of boats and hundreds of volunteers, pulling well over a ton of waste from the Pacific off Puerto Vallarta in a single operation. That outcome—measured in literal tons—helped convince sponsors and boat owners that the format scales. The second edition aims to build on that momentum and implement a sharper plan for sorting and disposal.
The lesson was straightforward. Get organized, give people a boat and a net, and they will pull astonishing amounts of junk out of the sea. This year’s call is a bet on that simple, repeatable truth—and on a bay that deserves clear water long after the last scales and T-shirt are handed out.
