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.
By Alyssa Gray, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration
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.
By Amanda Laverty, Office of Response and Restoration Marine Debris Program
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.
By Caitlin Wessel, Gulf of Mexico regional coordinator for OR&R’s Marine Debris Program
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!
