Consistent shoreline monitoring and data gathering efforts are essential to understanding local marine debris issues, how they change over time, and what types of debris are most common. Between 2012 and 2018, monthly marine debris monitoring surveys were conducted at six Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary beaches, located on the North-Central California Coast near San Francisco, and identified shotgun wads as one of the four most commonly found plastic items across all surveyed sites. A project to reduce plastic shotgun wad debris from entering San Francisco Bay and depositing onto coastal beaches was carried out and is documented in the report, โA Behavior Change Campaign to Reduce Plastic Shotgun Wad Debris on the North-Central California Coast.โ
Students, teachers, and school administrators all have their own parts to play in the vision of One Cool Earthโs Earth Genius marine debris education program in San Luis Obispo, California. This unique educational program partners with schools to incorporate marine debris education, practices, and principles throughout public school systems, from classrooms and cafeterias to school facilities and administration.
Thereโs an old saying that good things come in threes. This holds true for many things, including the fight against marine debris. Strategies to address this issue can be divided into three approaches: 1) reduce waste right at the source, 2) collect trash before it gets into the water, and 3) clean up trash from our shorelines. In California, innovative ways to tackle the issue of waste in our waterways fall within each of these categories, helping to make dreams of cleaner beaches a reality.
Marine debris can be dangerous for wildlife, damage sensitive habitats, and create safety and navigation hazards. But did you know that marine debris can also hurt the economies of coastal communities and decrease commercial fishing revenue? Marine debris can keep tourists away from beaches, compete with active fishing gear and reduce commercial catches, and cost small businesses money.
The Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary is one of the NOAA Marine Debris Programsโs longest running Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project partners. Six years of data collection at locations along the Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo county coastline revealed the types and frequency of marine debris on the surveyed shorelines, as well as one particularly interesting and problematic type of debris. The survey data indicated that shotgun wads, the plastic piece inside a shotgun shell that separates the shot from the powder, are one of the top ten most commonly found plastic items on all surveyed beaches.
Although plastic pollution is not a new phenomenon, concerns over the environmental and human health implications of microplastics, or plastic pieces less than 5 mm in size, has grown rapidly over the past decade. These concerns stem from their potential to be ingested by wildlife, accumulate in animal bodies, and transfer contaminants up the food chain, as well as their widespread presence in the environment.
In 1967, soul singer Otis Redding wrote the hit song (Sittinโ On) The Dock of the Bay while visiting a friendโs houseboat on Richardsonโs Bay, an inlet on the northern portion of San Francisco Bay near the City of Sausalito. To this day, the area surrounding Richardsonโs Bay has an eccentric bohemian vibe and is home to a melting pot of residents who share a historic maritime culture that started with the shipbuilding industry moving in during World War II.
California is home to 12% of the nationโs population, with 26 million people living in counties along its 3,427 mile coastline. The average American generates an average of 4.5 lbs of trash per day (EPA estimate as of 2017) multiplied by 26 million people, that's 117,000,000 lbs of trash generated just from California's coastal population for one day! Inevitably some portion of that waste is littered, lost, or โleakedโ through waste management and can eventually reach Californiaโs coastal ocean and become marine debris.
Imagine youโve planned a big trip to the beach with your family and friends, loaded up the car with supplies or jumped on a plane, and traveled to your vacation spot, only to find a beach littered with plastic beverage bottles, stray fishing line, chip bags, cigarette butts, and other debris. Would you stay and play, or be on your way? What if there were no debris, would you be more likely to return in the future? These are the kinds of questions we asked to better understand the relationship between marine debris and the coastal tourism 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. Theyโre easy to miss, but once you see them, youโll never โunseeโ them. Surfrider San Franciscoโs 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.
NOAA's Marine Debris Blog Customer Experience Feedback
This survey is designed to measure your level of satisfaction with our website. It consists of ten 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 for the sole purpose of improving NOAA's digital products and services. You may also send us an email at marinedebris.web@noaa.gov.
If you have comments concerning the accessibility of our website, please submit your feedback on our accessibility page.
A red asterisk (*) indicates a required field.
Success
Thank you. Your feedback has been received.
Error
alert message
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.