The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce our FY 2020 “Marine Debris Removal” federal funding opportunity. 

NOAA’s Marine Debris Program seeks comments to inform the development of our next five-year strategic plan (Fiscal Years 2021-2025). The Program is asking for comments from July 16 to August 16, 2019.

Located in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida, Eckerd College is a campus surrounded and defined by water. With the support of a NOAA Marine Debris Program Prevention Grant, the college recently implemented “The Sea Around Us: Reducing Single-use Plastic Consumption on a Coastal College Campus”, a project focuses on reducing, and ultimately eliminating, single-use plastic consumption on the college campus, as well as items that could potentially become marine debris.

The growing tide of plastic debris in our ocean is partially due to the steady discharge of plastic by our rivers that drain into the sea. Plastics materials enter waterways from rural and urbanized areas located near riverbanks, and then travel downstream with the flow. Plastic comes in a variety of sizes and includes both macroplastics (large enough to be seen with the naked eye) and microplastics (not easily seen with the naked eye and are about 5 mm in size; about the size of a pencil eraser).

As we get ready to celebrate our nation’s 243rd Independence Day, the NOAA Marine Debris Program would like to take a moment to reflect on what makes this holiday so special for Americans and share a few ways to bring it into the 21st century without marine debris!

Put on your flip-flops and let’s head to the beach! This week we are celebrating Clean Beaches Week and all of the great work our Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) participants are doing.

The 2019 Southeast Marine Debris Action Plan is a compilation of recommended objectives, strategies, and actions to address marine debris in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. It is a collaborative effort between the federal, state, and local governments, non-governmental organizations, academia, and industry, and aims to coordinate and galvanize new action to address everyday marine debris and debris generated by disasters throughout the Southeast.

Students in Prince George’s County, Maryland are leading the way in marine debris prevention and cleanup in their community. Through the Alice Ferguson Foundation’s Watershed Leadership Program (WLP), more than 400 students from seven local high schools have learned about plastic pollution and executed school-based action plans to prevent marine debris.