Great Lakes

The NOAA Marine Debris Program Great Lakes Region spans eight states from Minnesota to New York, covers the north coast, and forms a water boundary between the United States and our Canadian friends to the North.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to share the Great Lakes Land-based Marine Debris Action Plan Accomplishments Report 2014-2019. The Report documents the many actions taken over the five years of the Action Plan to reduce the impacts of marine debris in the Great Lakes.

Imagine you’ve 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.

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.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to release the Great Lakes Land-based Marine Debris Action Plan 2018 Action Summary Report. This report highlights all the important work completed by Great Lakes partners, as the plan officially comes to a close in 2019. Since creating the first the Great Lakes Land-based Marine Debris Action Plan in 2014, over 30 participating organizations around the region have worked together to complete 22 actions addressing marine debris in the 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.

Meet Sarah Lowe, the NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Great Lakes Regional Coordinator! Reach out to Sarah at sarah.lowe@noaa.gov!

The NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Great Lakes region is a large one, encompassing all Great Lakes states— from New York to Minnesota. This region has unique beauty with its complex system of habitats, ranging from the Lakes themselves to their associated wetlands, rivers, and tributaries.  Unfortunately, this landscape is marred by the presence of marine debris. Like many places throughout the country, marine debris is a big problem in the Great Lakes region, impacting the environment and the animals that live there, as well as the Great Lakes’ robust recreational fishing and boating economy. Luckily, there are many efforts currently underway to tackle marine debris in this area. Check out some of the newly-established projects funded by the Marine Debris Program.