Great Lakes

By: Sarah Lowe, Great Lakes Regional Coordinator for the NOAA Marine Debris Program

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is excited to announce the winners of the third annual Ohio Marine Debris Challenge! This contest is open every year to students in grades 9-12 who are enrolled in recognized public, private, and home schools in Ohio’s Lake Erie coastal communities. Students complete lessons and create a public service announcement to help raise awareness of marine debris. Winning teams were recognized last week at an awards ceremony at Cedar Point Amusement Park and were given recognition by members of congress, including Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Congressman Jim Renacci, Senator Rob Portman, and Senator Sherrod Brown. Check out this year's winners!

While marine debris is perhaps more commonly thought of as an oceanic problem, the Great Lakes region is an area that is also affected by debris, particularly consumer product items and other such land-based litter. In 2015 alone, the Alliance for the Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach Program removed 92,616 pounds of debris from Great Lakes habitats. These debris items come from a multitude of sources including overflowing trash cans and other improper waste management, as well as both accidental and intentional littering. Being far from the ocean, many people don’t think about how their trash can end up in our waterways. Weather such as winds and rains can help transport debris into streams and rivers, eventually traveling into the Great Lakes. Once in our environment, these debris items can cause a range of issues, including ingestion by and entanglement of wildlife, hazards for fishermen and boaters, and even simply creating an eyesore on once-beautiful shorelines.

Over the years of the NOAA Marine Debris Program, there have been many efforts around the country to rid our waters and shores of marine debris. As part of our ten-year anniversary celebration, let’s take a look back at one of those efforts in our Great Lakes region.

Fordson Island, in the Lower Rouge River, is located near Detroit, Michigan, and was the site of some pretty neat removal efforts back in 2011. The area actually has some cool history which you can read more about here. The shore of Fordson Island, which hosts some of the last remaining undeveloped habitat in a very industrialized area, was unfortunately the site of a lot of marine debris, most notably abandoned and derelict vessels.