By: Nancy Wallace, Director of the NOAA Marine Debris Program

This year marked the ten-year anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program. We are proud of our accomplishments and looking forward to the next ten years! Throughout 2016, we have celebrated by looking back on our accomplishments over the past decade. For a review of the past ten years, check out our timeline and continue to check out our blog and website as we move forward into our second decade of marine debris work!

Nancy Wallace, Director of the NOAA Marine Debris Program (Photo Credit: NOAA)

With 2016 soon coming to a close, so does the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s ten-year anniversary. Over the past ten years, the Program has seen tremendous growth and success as we’ve worked to address the issue of marine debris. We’ve expanded from an initial staff of six to nineteen, now covering ten regions of the country. Through the dedicated efforts of our team members and partners, we’ve removed thousands of tons of marine debris from our shores, gained valuable knowledge through scientific research, and reached thousands of students, teachers, and community members to raise awareness of the issue and prevent marine debris.

As we move into our next decade, we are looking forward to the future and the strides we hope to make in the fight against marine debris. To focus our efforts, we are driven by our strategic plan, which will guide us through 2020. We will continue to work with partners and stakeholders both at home and abroad to prevent new sources of marine debris. Our support of projects that work to remove, prevent, and research debris will be ongoing and we’re currently looking forward to the award of our new research grants later in 2017, working to further expand our knowledge base. Our next group of removal grants will be awarded as well, helping us continue our mission to remove debris from our shores. In addition, our focus on marine debris prevention will continue, as we investigate what constitutes the most effective method for inspiring behavior change regarding marine debris prevention.

Since its authorization, the NOAA Marine Debris Program has been involved in a yearly effort with multiple NOAA offices to remove marine debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The NOAA Marine Debris Program has reached thousands of students to prevent marine debris through education and outreach. (Photo Credit: Hawaii Wildlife Fund)

I am proud of what the NOAA Marine Debris Program has been able to accomplish over these past ten years and look forward to the next decade and beyond of marine debris work, until our vision of the global ocean and its coasts free from the impacts of marine debris is realized. Thank you to all who support our efforts by making changes in your own lives to combat marine debris; this is a global problem for which the solution requires a collaborative effort and we are excited to continue to be part of it.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program Annual Art Contest was launched in 2010. Winners are featured in our Marine Debris Calendar, which hangs on many walls, reminding people about marine debris and that we can all be part of the solution. (Image Credit: 2016 Calendar winner, Halie C., Grade 6, South Carolina)

The Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, an initiative to collect information on the types and amount of marine debris in the environment, began in 2012. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

This year marks the ten-year anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program and we have been celebrating throughout the year! As part of our celebration, we’ve been looking back on our accomplishments over the years (check out our timeline for a review of the past decade!). Let’s look back on 2016:

2016:

This past year was a special one for the NOAA Marine Debris Program—it marked our ten-year anniversary. As you’ve likely seen on our blog and website, we’ve been celebrating throughout the past year (if you missed it, check out our related blog posts). This has also been a chance for us to reflect on our work over the past decade and look to the future. This reflection was timely, as 2016 was also the first year under our new Strategic Plan. This plan will lead us into the future and help us to succeed in continuing to combat marine debris in the coming years. We want to make sure we’re strategic about our future priorities so that we can most effectively address the marine debris problem.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Strategic Plan is meant to guide our future priorities so we can best address marine debris. (Credit: NOAA)

This year also saw the release of our “Get Started Toolbox” to guide those participating in our Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP). The MDMAP is our flagship citizen science initiative that engages partner organizations and volunteers across the nation in completing shoreline marine debris surveys. The Toolbox serves as a resource for current and new participants, answering questions about the MDMAP and serving as a “one-stop shop” for all the resources that participants may need.

The “Get Started Toolbox” works as a useful resource for participants of the Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP). (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project, an initiative to collect information on the types and amount of marine debris in the environment, began in 2012. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The “Ecological and Economic Effects of Derelict Fishing Gear in the Chesapeake Bay Assessment Report” was also released this past year. This report was the result of a research project that looked at the impact of derelict crab pots throughout the Chespeake Bay. The project estimated where derelict pot concentrations are highest along with the impact of derelict gear removal programs. A “Guiding Framework” for derelict fishing gear assessments was also released, which can be applied to other fisheries and/or regions interested in conducting similar studies.

The Chespeake Bay derelict crab pot assessment report is a useful tool for learning more about the effects of derelict gear. (Credit: CSS-Dynamac, Inc.; Versar, Inc.; Virginia Institute of Marine Science; and Global Science & Technology, Inc.)

The NOAA Marine Debris Program accomplished a lot over this past year, and even more over the past decade. We would like to thank you for celebrating with us throughout 2016 and for your interest in marine debris! Having readers like you that care and make an effort be a part of the solution—be it joining a cleanup or bringing reusable bags to the grocery store—makes us proud and is essential to addressing our marine debris problem. Stay tuned next week for our final blog celebrating our ten-year anniversary and continue to check out our blog and website for more marine debris information throughout the year and into the next decade!

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program and we will be celebrating throughout the year! As part of our celebration, we will be looking back on our accomplishments over the years (check out our timeline for a review of the past decade!). Let’s take a look back to 2015:

2015:

Last year was another busy one for the NOAA Marine Debris Program. We expanded our international presence by contributing to marine debris prevention, reduction, and research efforts at the G7 summit and became the Chair of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Global Partnership on Marine Litter. Coordinating marine debris efforts on a global scale is important to addressing the problem, and we value these connections.

Marine debris is a global problem, so coordinating marine debris efforts on a global scale is important to addressing the problem. (Credit: NOAA)

We also continued to focus on the homefront and released the Alabama Incident Waterway Debris Response Plan and Field Guide. This was the first response plan that followed the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s newly-established response plan process. The NOAA Marine Debris Program is facilitating these planning efforts in coastal states to improve preparedness for responding to and recovering from debris events like severe storms or floods. These efforts work to outline existing response structures at the local, state, and federal levels, capturing all relevant responsibilities and existing procedures into a guidance document for easy reference in each state. The Alabama Plan has since been followed by similar plans for Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Established response guides will help state and local officials, along with federal partners, respond to acute marine debris incidents in coastal states. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

In 2015 we also released our mini-documentary, TRASH TALK! This 15-minute video can be broken down into 2-minute segments that talk about what marine debris is, where it comes from, its impacts, why plastic debris is so common, what the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, and what we can do about it. Using animation as well as live-action video and photos, TRASH TALK describes marine debris in an engaging and easy-to-understand way, making it an excellent educational tool. The full-length feature went on to win a Regional Emmy® Award this past year!

TRASH TALK reviews marine debris in an engaging and easy-to-understand way, making it an excellent tool to learn about marine debris! (Photo Credit: NOAA; Emmy® statuette © NATAS/ Television Academy)

For more on what the NOAA Marine Debris Program was up to in 2015, check out our timeline and continue to keep an eye on our blog to learn more about the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s accomplishments over the past decade!

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program and we will be celebrating throughout the year! As part of our celebration, we will be looking back on our accomplishments over the years (check out our timeline for a review of the past decade!). Let’s take a look back to 2014:

2014:

The NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) was hard at work on a number of fronts during 2014. One area where we saw great strides was in our regional planning efforts. With coordination from the MDP, the Great Lakes marine debris community became the second region (after Hawaii) to have a marine debris action plan—“The Great Lakes Land-based Marine Debris Action Plan.” This plan provides a roadmap for partners in the region to address marine debris. In addition, 2014 saw marine debris response planning begin in the Southeast and Florida.

The Great Lakes Land-based Marine Debris Action Plan was released in 2014.

Response planning started in the Southeast and Florida in 2014. Here, abandoned and derelict vessels rest in Charleston, SC. (Photo Credit: Peter Kingsley-Smith, SCDNR)

Another important milestone in 2014 was the MDP’s release of the Southern California Economics Study, which showed the impacts of marine debris on tourism, specifically in Orange County, CA. This assessment quantified how much a coastal community could lose in revenue from tourists avoiding littered beaches. However, it also found that reducing debris could prevent those financial losses.

The Southern California Economics Study was released in 2014. (Credit: NOAA)

The MDP was also focused on learning as much as we could about marine debris in 2014. We funded three research projects which focused on microplastics in the Gulf of Alaska, debris accumulation in the Gulf of Mexico, and microplastic ingestion by fish associated with brown algae in the Gulf of Mexico. Keep your eye on our blog in the coming months for results as many of our research projects are wrapping up. We use the results of research studies to better address marine debris and are always looking to learn more, so this year we’re offering a research grant once again!

A variety of samples from Gulf of Alaska surface waters. (Photo Credit: University of Washington Tacoma)

Floating Sargassum. (Photo Credit: University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory)

Keep an eye on our blog throughout the year to learn about more of the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s accomplishments over the past decade.

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program and we will be celebrating throughout the year! As part of our celebration, we will be looking back on our accomplishments over the years (check out our timeline for a review of the past decade!). Let’s take a look back to 2013:

2013:

The NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) was busy once again in 2013, working hard to further our mission of preventing the adverse impacts of marine debris. This year was the first of our Prevention through Education and Outreach competitive grants, focusing on preventing marine debris by reaching out to students and communities. During this first year, we funded eight prevention projects.

This year also marked our first research grant competition, focusing on learning more about the issue so we can better address it in the future. Three research projects were funded. As these initial funded projects wrap up (keep an eye on our blog for some of the general results!), we’re gearing up for our next research grant competition. Proposals are currently being accepted until December 19^th. Check out our Funding Opportunities webpage for more details.

One of the eight funded Prevention through Education and Outreach projects in 2013 involved educating teachers and students about marine debris at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. (Photo Credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium)

One of the three research projects funded through our 2013 competitive grant investigated the influence of microplastics on the grazing behavior of copepods. This project is currently wrapping up and will be highlighted on our blog in the coming months. (Photo Credit: Jason Landrum)

The MDP was also hard at work in 2013 addressing the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. With the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013, Congress provided the MDP with $4.75 million to locate and remove the marine debris generated by the storm.

Hurricane Sandy caused devastation along the U.S. East Coast. Here, a damaged house boat is removed. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

Not only was the MDP busy with competitive grants and Hurricane Sandy debris, but we also put out some pretty useful products! The Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment: Recommendations for Monitoring Debris Trends in the Marine Environment report was published and the Marine Debris Clearinghouse was launched, giving information on all of our funded projects!

Keep an eye on our blog throughout the year to learn about more of the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s accomplishments over the past decade.

This year marks the ten year anniversary of the NOAA Marine Debris Program and we will be celebrating throughout the year! As part of our celebration, we will be looking back on our accomplishments over the years (check out our timeline for a review of the past decade!). Let’s take a look back to 2012:

2012:

The NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) faced some important challenges in 2012 and was busier than ever! To start, the Marine Debris Act was amended, expanding to include regional coordination and emergency response. This made the MDP responsible for coordinating with partners on a daily basis, as well as responding to severe debris events. With the added responsibility of regional coordination, the MDP upgraded its reach from six to ten coastal regions, now including the Pacific Islands, Alaska, Pacific Northwest, California, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Caribbean!

Marine debris litters the shores of a Caribbean beach. The Caribbean region was incorporated into the MDP’s regional focus in 2012. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The MDP also began its Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) in 2012, a citizen science initiative that was created to help us gain a better understanding of the most common types of marine debris and the progress of prevention initiatives. This effort continues today, with the release of the associated “Get Started Toolbox” just this year!

Volunteers survey a West Coast beach. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

The MDMAP’s monthly shoreline surveys gather important information on marine debris and in 2012, also helped identify Japan Tsunami Marine Debris (JTMD), which first reached the West Coast, Alaska, and Hawaii that year. The MDP has since received hundreds of JTMD sightings, and with the help of the Japanese consulate, has been able to definitively trace vessels, buoys, and even a soccer ball back to the tsunami. In some cases, these items have even been returned to their owners!

The Daini Katsu Maru was a JTMD vessel that was returned to Japan. (Photo Credit: DLNR, State of Hawaii)

A soccer ball that was returned to 16 year-old Misaki Murakami after being found in Alaska in 2012. (Photo Credit: David Baxter)

Unfortunately, JTMD was not the only disaster debris the MDP faced in 2012. Hurricane Sandy caused severe damage on the East coast of the United States, leaving large amounts of debris in waterways and on shorelines. NOAA led efforts to respond to debris alongside federal, state, and local partners and as a result, created best management practices for removing marine debris from wetlands and other sensitive habitats.

Hurricane Sandy caused devastation along the U.S. East Coast. Here, a roller coaster that was swallowed by the rising water lies in ruin. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

Hurricane Sandy caused devastation along the U.S. East Coast. Here, a damaged house boat is removed. (Photo Credit: NOAA)

Keep an eye on our blog throughout the year to learn about more of the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s accomplishments over the past decade.