About the Program
NOAA Community-based Restoration Program
The NOAA Community-based Restoration Program promotes partnerships at the national, regional, and local level to restore fisheries habitat through financial and technical assistance.
The program supports local habitat restoration projects in marine, estuarine, and riparian areas, funding projects that offer educational and social benefits for communities, and provide long-term ecological benefits for fishery resources.
Examples of marine debris removal projects funded by the Community-based Restoration Program are:
Mobile Bay Crab Trap Recovery (Mobile County, AL) – The derelict crab trap recovery program collected abandoned traps in an effort to restore habitat and decrease ill effects on marine crabs and fishes.
Anacostia Floodplain Habitat Restoration (Prince George’s County, MD) – This project provided students in the Anacostia River watershed with an opportunity to get involved through volunteer restoration and education activities. S tudents removed approximately 7,500 pounds of debris and 50 tires from the watershed, planted native wildlife habitat on school property and sites within the community, and stenciled approximately 75 storm drains in the watershed.
Vanderbilt Creek Debris Removal Project (Juneau County, AK) – This project restored approximately five acres of riparian, streambank and in-stream habitats through the removal of debris and garbage. Southeast Alaska Guidance Association developed a debris removal plan and clean-up protocol. The Association then recruited and trained community volunteers to complete the on-the-ground work.
Waste Tire Removal for Reef Fish Habitat Restoration (Broward County, FL) – Beginning in 1967, Broward County initiated a project to build an artificial reef with waste tires. The tires were bundled and, by 1973, over a million tires had been dumped within a permitted area. Storms and ocean currents subsequently caused the break-up of the tire "reef," allowing the tires to move freely. Under this project, volunteer divers, students and staff from NOVA Southeastern University:
- removed waste tires that had piled up against the natural reef,
- collected live hard corals growing on the tires and relocated them to coral nurseries, and
- monitored ocean currents and wave action to determine if they would move tires back into cleared areas.
Partners include the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Broward County Dept. of Planning and Environmental Protection.
Derelict Gear Removal from Northern Puget Sound (7 counties) – Existing diving and gear-removal protocols and policies were gathered from state agencies to help with developing specific derelict gear removal protocols. This pilot project in the waters of the Northwest Straits (Northern Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca), implemented the new protocols, and initial removal effort consisted of surveying, locating (GPS), photographing, and mapping derelict fishing gear.
Site monitoring, project evaluation, and community outreach components have been instituted in order to involve the project's many volunteer participants. An estimated 3,555 linear ft or 177,750 sq ft of derelict gillnets were recovered; this is equal to 3.5 football fields. A 1-800 hotline telephone number has been established for citizens to report gear locations.
This program is housed within NOAA's Fisheries Service, Office of Habitat Conservation, Restoration Center.
The International Coastal Clean-up - The Ocean Conservancy's 2005 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) focuses on the marine debris problems plaguing our nation’s coastal areas, and on the human activities that produce debris: recreational and shoreline activities, boating and fishing, smoking, dumping and medical/personal hygiene. Through this approach, they create strategies to educate the public on the problems caused by debris and how to change their own behavior to stop this pollution at its source.
Olympic Coast Clean-up Beach Debris Removal- Volunteers contribute thousands of hours to collection of marine debris from the 65-mile shoreline interface of Olympic National Park and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. This results annually in the removal of over 30,000 lbs of plastics, wood, fishing gear, rubber, glass and other flotsam from one of the few designated coastal wilderness areas in the Lower 48 states.
This program is funded in part by the NOAA Ocean Service, Office of Response & Restoration, Marine Debris Program
