grants

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.

Lost and discarded fishing gear is hazardous, and can be a difficult marine debris problem to address. Once lost, nets, lines, and traps can entangle wildlife, create major hazards to navigation, and damage sensitive and important habitats. Because gear can have few identifying characteristics, it can be difficult to track its location, or find its source. In order to reduce the impacts to coastal habitats from derelict fishing gear (DFG), the NOAA Marine Debris Program funds projects that remove and prevent the continued impacts of fishing debris.

The presence of marine debris creates numerous problems for the environment, marine life, and humans. Large marine debris presents its own unique challenges, threatening the ocean, coasts, and waterways by obstructing navigational channels, causing harm to important habitat, and diminishing commercial and recreational activities. Removing large debris requires significant financial and technical resources.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program works with partners across the country to address marine debris through several nationwide, competitive funding opportunities annually. Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting community-based marine debris removal and research projects that were awarded grants during the past year.

Due to recent severe weather in several parts of the country, the due date for the Letters of Intent (LOI) for the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Marine Debris Prevention grant opportunity has changed. Letters of Intent will now be due on October 5, 2017. As a reminder, applicants for the Marine Debris Prevention grant opportunity must first submit an LOI, after which only those invited to submit a full proposal will be considered for funding. Applicants will be notified by November 1, 2017 if they have been invited to submit a full proposal. For more details, visit Grants.gov.

After an intensive evaluation process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce the four recipients of our 2017 research awards, totaling $935,156 of funding toward marine debris research efforts. Marine debris is a relatively new field of research, and there are many opportunities to advance understanding of how debris impacts the environment. The NOAA Marine Debris Program held a nationwide competitive funding opportunity to support original, hypothesis-driven research projects focused on the ecological risk assessment, exposure studies, and fate and transport of marine debris. Check out this year's funded projects.

After an intensive evaluation process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce the 11 recipients of our 2017 removal awards, totaling $1,238,358 of funding toward marine debris removal efforts. Although prevention is essential in stopping marine debris at its source, removing marine debris is unfortunately necessary to address all the debris that is already out there. The NOAA Marine Debris Program offers an annual nationwide competitive funding opportunity to support projects that focus on community-based marine debris removal. Check out this year's funded projects.