About the Program
National Sea Grant College Program
Many of the 30 NOAA Sea Grant programs (located at universities in every coastal and Great Lakes state) join with a variety of federal, state, and local organizations to enhance existing local marine debris clean-up programs and implement educational and outreach programs to foster marine debris prevention.
Sea Grant programs are engaged in many types of marine debris activities throughout the Gulf, Pacific, Great Lakes and Atlantic regions. The following is a small sampling of projects:
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant’s Community-based Marine Debris Cleanup - This project engages volunteers to remove marine debris from coastal waters and other watershed locations. Volunteers in Alabama have removed 83,615 pounds of debris from the beaches and waterways. More than 4,500 volunteers collected nearly 73,000 pounds of trash along 223 miles of Mississippi Gulf Coast and barrier islands waterways.
Alabama and Mississippi Marine Debris Removal and Prevention: Boater Education and Volunteer-based Clean-up Program project aims to expand existing community clean-up efforts coordinated by the Alabama and Mississippi NOAA Coastal Sections, launching a tire removal program modeled after the derelict crab-trap removal program and implement educational and teacher-training programs to foster marine debris prevention throughout the states.
Hawaii Sea Grant - This program is active in marine debris research and mitigation, and was instrumental in facilitating the first multi-agency marine debris mitigation task force and the first ever large-scale, multi-agency marine debris removal effort in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in partnership with NOAA Fisheries. To date, 16 federal, state, local, industry, and non-governmental organization partners have removed over 286 metric tons of derelict fishing gear and other debris from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. One hundred twenty-six tons were removed in 2004.
Ohio Sea Grant - This program initiated a semi-annual underwater clean up in partnership with Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and local vendors. Using local SCUBA clubs and land volunteers, they removed approximately 10 tons of trash from the Put-in-Bay Harbor since the first event in 1992. These activities serve the public through:
- Education and public outreach programs that teach new generations
about the negative impact marine debris has on the coastal environment.
- Community-based marine debris cleanup efforts that provide opportunities
for environmental stewardship by local citizens
and increase the awareness of the issue in those
inclined to contribute to the marine debris
problem.
- Reducing marine debris through behavior changes that will improve the quality of life for coastal residents and decrease the negative impact on the environment.
This program is housed in NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.
Specific Sea Grant Marine Debris Projects and Publications
Gulf/Puerto Rico Sea Grant Programs
Guide to Reducing Derelict Fishing Gear and Other Marine Debris (pdf, 420kb)
Texas Sea Grant
Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant
Louisiana Sea Grant
Hawaii Sea Grant Extension
Guidebook to Marine Mammals and Turtles of Hawaii and the Eastern Pacific Region
Hawaii Sea Grant Extension Activities on
Pacific Marine Debris (pdf, 140kb)
Alaska Sea Grant Publications
Ohio Sea Grant
New Hampshire Sea Grant
Strategic Plan 2001-2006 (pdf, 836kb)
University of Delaware Sea Grant Boater Education
South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium
Virginia Sea Grant Bridge Web site
