Over the years of the NOAA Marine Debris Program, there have been many efforts around the country to rid our waters and shores of marine debris. As part of our ten-year anniversary celebration, letโs take a look back at one of those efforts in our Southeast region.
Derelict fishing gear can cause lots of problems, including damaging important and sensitive habitats, ghost fishing, and posing hazards to navigation. Unfortunately, derelict commercial lobster and crab traps are a prominent type of marine debris in the Florida Keys.
Research is an important part of our fight against marine debris, as it allows us to learn more about the topic and be better able to target and address it in the future. Thanks to a new study by our very own Chief Scientist, Amy Uhrin, we now know a little more about derelict lobster traps and how they impact habitat in the Florida Keys. Read all about it and get the link to the scientific paper in this NOAA Response and Restoration blog post.
What do microplastics, nesting sea turtles, derelict crab trap floats, local fishermen, and whale guts have in common? Theyโre all part of some of the exciting projects going on in the Southeast region to fight marine debris! Thereโs lots going on in the NOAA Marine Debris Programโs (MDP) Southeast region right now, check out a quick glimpse at some of these projects supported by the MDP:
Starting down in Florida, Sea Grant is creating a network of citizen scientists to test water samples for microplastics and using that information to educate Floridians about plastic debris.
Although most people picture a floating mass of debris when they think of a โgarbage patch,โ thatโs actually pretty inaccurate. Letโs set the record straight and get to the truth about garbage patches.
First off, garbage patches have been wildly misrepresented in the media in the past, causing confusion on the subject and leading many to believe that there is a large โisland of trashโ in the Pacific Oceanโat least the size of Texas!โ that you can walk around on. This is extremely far from reality.
To start, when people talk about โthe garbage patch,โ they are usually referring to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Oceanโone of many garbage patches located throughout our global ocean. These garbage patches are formed as a result of rotating ocean currents called โgyres,โ which pull debris into their center, creating areas with higher concentrations of marine debris.
Every year, multiple NOAA offices collaborate to support a marine debris removal effort in the Papahฤnaumokuฤkea Marine National Monument (PMNM), located in the remote and mostly uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Due to the PMNMโs location in relation to the North Pacific Gyre and ocean currents, this area is often highly afflicted with marine debris and these efforts are greatly needed. This year, the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) Coral Reef Ecosystem Program of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the NOAA Marine Debris Program, and the Papahฤnaumokuฤkea Marine National Monument of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have organized and supported an effort to clean Midway, Kure, and Pearl and Hermes Atolls, Lisianski and Laysan Islands, and the French Frigate Shoals. The 2016 mission launched on Tuesday, April 12th, and will work to remove marine debris for a month, until the mission ends on May 13th.
By: Nir Barnea, Pacific Northwest Regional Coordinator, and Emma Tonge, Intern, with the NOAA Marine Debris Program
Many thanks go out to Russ Lewis, Heidi Pedersen, and Dana Wu for the balloon reports.
I was on a phone interview with Glenn Farley, a reporter with King 5 TV in Seattle who was preparing a report on balloons that become marine debris, when he asked, โSo, how many balloons have been found along the Washington coast?โ Unfortunately, I didnโt have an answer for him. โI find balloons occasionally during marine debris cleanups, and I know that others do too, but I donโt have a number for you,โ I told him. Obviously, this was one of those situations where โIโll get back to you laterโ was in order.
His question made me curious, and I wanted to have a better idea of the scale of this problem. How many balloons? What type? How do we get this information? It was clear that a full scale, scientific study on the number of balloons arriving on the Washington coast would take much time and effort. But, could we possibly get current anecdotal information to give us an idea of how many balloons are found?
The NOAA Marine Debris Program is celebrating our 10-year anniversary throughout 2016. As part of this celebration, weโd like to take the time to look back on some of our past work. Check out this entangled sea turtle that was found back in 2006 and happily released back into Hawaiian waters, free of marine debris.
Marine debris can impact our ocean in many ways, one of which is wildlife entanglement. On this trip, a sea turtle was found entangled in a derelict fishing net.
As members of the NOAA marine debris removal effort in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were about to start the process of removing a large derelict net ensnared on some coral, they found a surpriseโ a poor entangled sea turtle! Each year, NOAA supports this effort to remove marine debris from the Papahฤnaumokuฤkea Marine National Monument, which resulted in over 14.5 metric tons of debris collected last year alone!
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This survey is designed to measure your level of satisfaction with the NOAA Marine Debris Program Blog website. It consists of 10 questions and should take approximately two to five minutes to complete. Please do not use this survey to provide comments on or responses to rules, notices, solicitations or other official agency actions. Any information you provide will be used to for the sole purpose of improving NOAA's digital products and services.
If you wish to provide feedback outside of the scope of this survey, please contact us at marinedebris.web@noaa.gov.