grants

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce our FY 2022 Marine Debris Prevention notice of funding opportunity. NOAA will fund prevention projects that actively engage and educate a target audience (such as students, teachers, industries, etc.) in hands-on programs designed to raise awareness, reduce barriers to marine debris prevention, and encourage and support changes in behaviors to ensure long-term prevention of marine debris. NOAA will also fund projects in the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada border regions, subject to additional eligibility criteria. 

Following a highly competitive review process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to announce the 25 recipients of our 2021 Removal, Research, and North America Marine Debris Prevention and Removal Grant awards totaling approximately $7.3 million in federal funds. Federal funding is matched by non-federal contributions, bringing the total investment of these marine debris projects to approximately $14.7 million.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce our FY 2022 Marine Debris Removal notice of funding opportunity. Projects awarded through the removal grant competition will create long-term, quantifiable ecological habitat improvements for NOAA trust resources, with priority consideration for efforts targeting derelict fishing gear, abandoned and derelict vessels, and other medium- and large-scale debris. Projects should also foster public awareness of the effects of marine debris to further the conservation of living marine resource habitats, and contribute to the understanding of marine debris composition, distribution, and impacts. NOAA will also fund projects in the U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada border regions, subject to additional eligibility criteria. 

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce our FY 2021 Marine Debris Research notice of funding opportunity. Projects awarded through the research grant competition will investigate and identify the critical input pathways for marine debris introduction into the coastal zone (shoreline or nearshore), including evaluation of appropriate simultaneous pathways of riverine transport downstream, surface runoff, stormwater discharge, and wind-driven transport, as well as degradation and fragmentation of debris during transport.

Following a highly competitive review process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to announce the 23 recipients of our 2020 Removal and Prevention Grant awards totaling approximately $2.7 million in federal funds. Federal funding is matched by non-federal contributions, bringing the total investment of these marine debris projects to approximately $5.9 million. 

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce our FY 2021 Marine Debris Removal notice of funding opportunity. Projects awarded through the removal grant competition will create long-term, quantifiable ecological habitat improvements for NOAA trust resources, with priority consideration for efforts targeting derelict fishing gear, abandoned and derelict vessels, and other medium- and large-scale debris.

People all over the world are concerned about marine debris and they would like to know more about it. The NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Communications Team responds to those questions we receive through email, and we’ve seen a trend. Following the National Ocean Services theme of Ocean Trivia for this week, we have created our own marine debris “trivia questions” that we hope you enjoy!

Today, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced the 2020 Request for Proposals from the Fishing for Energy Partnership. The NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to be part of this collaboration, along with NFWF and Covanta, to provide up to $500,000 in grant funding to support strategies that reduce the impacts of derelict fishing gear on marine and coastal environments and navigational safety.

Following a highly competitive review process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to announce the 14 recipients of our 2019 removal and research grant awards totaling approximately $2.7 million in federal funds.

Research is an important part of our fight against marine debris. It allows us to advance our understanding of how debris impacts the environment, and improves our ability to target and address the problem in the future. Recent research has shown that marine debris, such as microplastics (plastics less than 5mm in size), can be ingested by fish and species that filter their food out of the water. In order to improve our understanding of marine debris, the NOAA Marine Debris Program supports original and hypothesis-driven research projects which focus on the potential risk to wildlife from debris exposure and ingestion.