research

The Pacific Ocean bonds and connects many islands and people throughout the region. These communities share in the art and science of traditional navigation, which has fostered an intimate attachment to the ocean over many generations. Today, these island communities also share in the struggle of mitigating marine debris as they work to protect the ocean.

California is home to 12% of the nation’s 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 “leaked” through waste management and can eventually reach California’s coastal ocean and become marine debris.

The holidays have arrived and that means party decorations and celebrations! Last week, the Marine Debris Program highlighted how to “green” your travel plans, how to create zero waste gifts and gift wrapping, and how to host and decorate for holiday parties that celebrate the Earth too. As we wrap up 2019, we have one more piece of celebration advice: try a glitter-free New Year.

Following a highly competitive review process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is pleased to announce the 14 recipients of our 2019 removal and research grant awards totaling approximately $2.7 million in federal funds.

The growing tide of plastic debris in our ocean is partially due to the steady discharge of plastic by our rivers that drain into the sea. Plastics materials enter waterways from rural and urbanized areas located near riverbanks, and then travel downstream with the flow. Plastic comes in a variety of sizes and includes both macroplastics (large enough to be seen with the naked eye) and microplastics (not easily seen with the naked eye and are about 5 mm in size; about the size of a pencil eraser).

Research is an important part of our fight against marine debris. It allows us to advance our understanding of how debris impacts the environment, and improves our ability to target and address the problem in the future. Recent research has shown that marine debris, such as microplastics (plastics less than 5mm in size), can be ingested by fish and species that filter their food out of the water. In order to improve our understanding of marine debris, the NOAA Marine Debris Program supports original and hypothesis-driven research projects which focus on the potential risk to wildlife from debris exposure and ingestion.

Have you ever wondered how much marine debris is on the shoreline of the United States, or what areas of the country have the most debris? What about the most common types of debris in different regions of the United States? These are a few of the questions that were answered by analyzing data from the Ocean Conservancy’s 30-year International Coastal Cleanup, as well as five years’ worth of data from NOAA's Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project.  The NOAA Marine Debris Program funded a rigorous statistical analysis of both datasets performed by the Ocean Conservancy (OC), together with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). We are now pleased to share these exciting results!

By: Chelsea M. Rochman, Guest Blogger and Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto

The microplastics literature is growing at a tremendous rate. Every day, new studies are published about their sources, fate, and effects. There is no longer any doubt that microplastics of all shapes, sizes, and types contaminate diverse ocean habitats and animals. We also understand much more about the effects of microplastics on organisms than we did just a few years ago. Still, there are research gaps to fill. As part of a project funded by the NOAA Marine Debris Program, we set out to answer questions related to these research gaps. We examined whether environmentally-relevant concentrations of different types of microplastics directly affect freshwater prey and indirectly affect their predators. Check out the results which were just published.

After an intensive evaluation process, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to announce the four recipients of our 2017 research awards, totaling $935,156 of funding toward marine debris research efforts. Marine debris is a relatively new field of research, and there are many opportunities to advance understanding of how debris impacts the environment. The NOAA Marine Debris Program held a nationwide competitive funding opportunity to support original, hypothesis-driven research projects focused on the ecological risk assessment, exposure studies, and fate and transport of marine debris. Check out this year's funded projects.

By: Dr. Stefanie Whitmire, Guest Blogger and Research Scientist at the Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology & Forest Science, Clemson University

Microplastics are plastic pieces measuring less than five millimeters in size and in recent decades, there have been many studies that indicate a strong presence of this type of debris in marine and coastal environments. Microplastics can come from a variety of sources. Some microplastics are manufactured at that small size as microbeads, found in products like toothpaste and facial scrubs, or pellets, which are used to make larger plastic items. Microfibers, another type of microplastic debris, come from synthetic items such as rope or clothing (like fleece). Microplastics also come from the breakdown of larger plastic pieces, such as water bottles and fishing line. To investigate the number and distribution of microplastics on National Park beaches across the Unites States, researchers at Clemson University collaborated with the National Park Service to collect and analyze sand from 37 coastal National Parks.