To visitors of the Pacific Northwest, beaches along the Pacific Ocean and the Puget Sound seem stunningly beautiful and often pristine. A closer look reveals that these beaches, like beaches the world over, are impacted by marine debris that harms the ecosystem, creates navigational hazards, and negatively affects the economy.

Despite the fact that cigarette smoking is on a steep decline, cigarette butts remain the top littered item in San Francisco, and the most common item found on beaches around the world. They’re easy to miss, but once you see them, you’ll never “unsee” them. Surfrider San Francisco’s Hold on to Your Butt program has one ambitious goal: to end cigarette litter so we never have to see those butts again. Through volunteer power, the program works to bring awareness to the environmental impact of the cigarette flick.

California is not only home to beaches, super blooms, and stars, but is also home to 12% of the population of the United States, and the fifth largest economy in the world. With such concentrated human and economic activity, marine debris can be a serious problem. However, California is leading the way on waste reduction and marine debris prevention efforts.

Earth Day is right around the corner! This year, it falls on this coming Monday, April 22nd. We encourage you to celebrate by taking the opportunity to join in the fight against marine debris and prevent trash from entering our ocean, waterways, and Great Lakes.

It’s that time of year—we are excited to announce the winners of the Annual NOAA Marine Debris Program Art Contest! We received hundreds of impressive entries from around the country, and although we wish we could showcase them all, we are excited to share this year’s winners with you.

Earlier this week, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) announced the 2019 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 Energy Corporation, to support the availability of up to $1 million in grant funding to support strategies that reduce the impacts of derelict fishing gear on marine and coastal environments and navigational safety. The deadline for full proposals is Thursday, April 25, 2019.

Today is World Water Day, a day to recognize that water is our most precious resource, needed by every single living thing on earth. In the Great Lakes, over 40 million people depend directly on HOMES (Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, and Superior) for drinking water. These lakes are the largest freshwater system on Earth and contain a fifth of the world’s water, adding up to more than 6 quadrillion gallons. Unfortunately, marine debris not only exists in our ocean, but can also be found in the Great Lakes and affect the quality of the water that we are drinking. Tiny plastics less than 5mm in size, called microplastics, dominate the waters of the Great Lakes. We don’t yet know how microplastics in our drinking water can affect human health, but we do know that preventing marine debris is a crucial step in improving the water quality of the Great Lakes.

Spring is just around the corner. Warmer weather often inspires us to throw open the windows and clean out our hibernation caves. Spring cleaning is a time-honored tradition, but it can also generate huge amounts of waste. Clothes that don’t fit anymore, old trinkets, or anything else that does not spark joy can end up in a landfill. The more waste we produce, the more likely it is that some of our discarded items will end up escaping a garbage truck or landfill and end up in our waterways. As you clean, think about these questions to keep our ocean and Great Lakes clean as well.