NOAA’s Marine Debris Program

Just like people who travel around the world, our trash travels and it can go pretty far! Even if it’s dropped in an inland location, litter can easily become marine debris. Then it can move around the ocean, being pushed around by wind and currents, and traveling to far off locations, from remote islands to the depths of the ocean.

This past year has certainly been a busy one for OR&R's Marine Debris Program as it moved forward under the guidance of a new 2021-2025 Strategic Plan and six program pillars—prevention, removal, research, monitoring and detection, response, and coordination. Here’s a closer look at a few of the major accomplishments from the Marine Debris Program and our partners this past fiscal year.

On Wednesday, September 22, the NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Debris Project team, joined by the non-profit Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project, marked the completion of their marine debris removal mission in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (monument). The team arrived at Pearl Harbor aboard the charter vessel IMUA along with the nearly 124,000 pounds of marine debris removed during the 30-day mission.

This feature is part of a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). In this month’s feature meet Tom Barry, a management and program analyst in OR&R’s Marine Debris Program.

This is the 11th in a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s featured scientist is Marine Debris Program Great Lakes Regional Coordinator Sarah Lowe.

Imagine you’ve planned a big day at the beach with your family and friends, loaded up the car with supplies, and traveled out to your favorite 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? This is the choice that many face when heading to their local beaches.

This is the seventh in a monthly series profiling scientists and technicians who provide exemplary contributions to the mission of NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R). This month’s profile is on Marine Debris Program Chief Scientist Amy Uhrin.

Marine debris and plastic pollution first appeared in scientific literature in the 1970s, and have since become highly published topics. Debris can be found in a variety of marine environments — from coasts and remote beaches, to Arctic and Antarctic regions — throughout the open ocean and all the way down to the deepest depths of the sea floor.

On Jan. 15, Mobile Baykeeper hosted a cleanup at One Mile Creek in Mobile, Alabama targeting debris originating from Mardi Gras celebrations and nearby communities. Caitlin Wessel, Gulf of Mexico regional coordinator for OR&R's Marine Debris Program attended, lending a hand (and a paddle) to the cleanup!