Natural disasters like hurricanes can be bad news for marine debris. The marine debris that’s already in the ocean gets moved and mixed around, but the real concern is the large amount of debris that finds its way into our waterways during a natural disaster. High winds, storm surges and heavy rains can drag debris into waterways. To learn more about this topic, check out our page on emergency response.

For citation purposes, unless otherwise noted, this article was authored by the NOAA Marine Debris Program.

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