holiday

Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and let’s remember that it’s not just a day off from work and school, but a day to think about what it means for our country. To commemorate a great man who spent his life serving others, this day has become a time to come together to give back to our communities and volunteer our time to a good cause. If you’d like to participate in MLK Day of Service, consider joining a cleanup in your area. Cleaning up your local shoreline or even just your neighborhood can help prevent trash from becoming marine debris and can help to create a healthy ocean that we can all enjoy.

As another year comes to a close, we like to take this time to look back on 2017 and look forward to the year ahead. This year, the NOAA Marine Debris Program saw over 18,300 students involved in marine debris education and outreach and more than 1,600 metric tons of debris removed from our shores! Check out our 2017 Accomplishments Report for more on what we’ve achieved this past year. Looking to 2018, we’re excited for the year ahead and we hope you are too! We resolve to continue our fight against marine debris in several ways. What are your resolutions? There are many efforts we can all resolve to make to get our ocean off to a good start in 2018.

By: Amanda Laverty, Sea Grant Knauss Fellow for the NOAA Marine Debris Program

The ocean remains one of the most expansive and diverse places on Earth. Sadly, marine debris continues to threaten this sensitive ecosystem, with a lack of waste management infrastructure around the world and expanding populations heightening the problem. Here at the NOAA Marine Debris Program, we are showing our love for the ocean this holiday season by celebrating with less waste and more marine debris prevention! We hope you will join us by considering how you might apply some of these ideas and tips to reduce your holiday footprint this year.

It’s almost Thanksgiving and here the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP), we’re thinking about what we’re most thankful for this year.

At the MDP, we’re thankful for the wonderful partners that we work with to help spread the message, clean up, and learn more about the issue of marine debris. We’re also thankful for all the people out there that are thinking about marine debris and how they can help. Each person that thinks “you know, maybe I’ll use a reusable bag at the grocery store today”—we’re thankful for you and your efforts to reduce extra waste that could find its way to the ocean!

BOO! It’s Halloween—the scariest day of the year—and nothing is more frightening on All Hallows’ Eve than… marine debris!

Halloween is both scary and fun, but unfortunately often results in an increase in trash that can become marine debris. But, thankfully there are ways to *actually* be a superhero (not just dress like one!) and take steps to prevent this from happening!

The Fourth of July is coming up next week and if you’re lucky, you’ll be celebrating for the long weekend. As you enjoy the holiday and the summer weather, make sure that you’re thinking not only of our country, but also of our environment and what you can do to keep your celebration debris-free. Take some of these tips into consideration when planning your festivities and have a fun, safe, and clean Fourth of July weekend!

This past Saturday was National Get Outdoors Day— did you participate? It’s getting to be that time of year when the weather is beautiful and being outside is awesome. Unfortunately, when you’re enjoying the outdoors, you’re likely to run into something that is way too common: marine debris. Sadly, marine debris is a global problem that originates from a variety of sources. That empty chip bag that you see on your street? That can easily find its way to our waters and become marine debris.

Happy World Ocean Day to everyone that lives on this big, blue planet! Each year, we celebrate this day by honoring our global ocean and all that it does for us. From the food we eat to the air we breathe, we are all connected to the ocean. This year’s theme, “our oceans, our future,” reminds us how we are always connected with the marine environment. Unfortunately, the ocean faces many threats, one of which is marine debris. Huge amounts of marine debris enter our ocean every day, jeopardizing its future health and making marine debris one of the most widespread pollution problems facing the ocean today.

Earth Day is tomorrow and there is still plenty of time to figure out how you’d like to get involved and celebrate! There are many things we can all do in our everyday lives to help our planet and Earth Day is a great time to start those habits. Earth Day is also a good time to make the extra effort to get involved in a cleanup. You can get outside to enjoy the nice spring weather and have a good time with friends as you also work to pick up debris and clean our environment. Not sure where to find a cleanup near you? Check out this list of cleanups throughout the country! There have been some recent additions to the list, so take another look if you’ve seen it already.

By: Amanda Laverty, Knauss Fellow with the NOAA Marine Debris Program

Earth Day is just around the corner and it’s the perfect time to get involved and support efforts working toward a clean environment and healthy planet. We want to remind ourselves to make these efforts throughout the year, so Earth Day is a great time to start. This year, let’s challenge ourselves as consumers to make better daily choices so that we can collectively lessen our impact on the planet! It only takes a few consistent choices to develop new sustainable and earth-friendly habits. Here are a few easy and effective ways you can choose to reduce your daily impact and make a world of difference:

1. Bring a bag. Remember to bring reusable bags to the grocery store or for any other shopping activities to reduce consumption of disposable bags.