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Check out the new Great Lakes Marine Debris Action Plan!
We are pleased to share the 2020-2025 Great Lakes Marine Debris Action Plan. This document is the result of a collaborative effort between the NOAA Marine Debris Program and partners in Ontario, Canada and eight U.S. states (IL, IN, MI, MN, NY, OH, PA, WI), and represents a partner-led effort to guide marine debris actions in the Great Lakes for the next five years.
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Marine debris on Holiday Beach near Kodiak, Alaska (Photo: Island Trails Network).
Alaska is often thought of as the “last frontier.” While common images of snow-covered mountains, isolated cabins, fishing boats, and amazing wildlife are all true to life, Alaska is also a place where marine debris is an especially challenging problem.
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The Marine Debris Cleanup Crew removed 100 super sacks of debris from the shoreline of St. Paul Island (Photo: P. Chambers, Ocean Conservancy).
Historically, the tribal community of St. Paul Island, Alaska, walked their shorelines to remove debris, such as driftwood and animal bones, from the beaches, ensuring that the summer homes of laaqudan, or Northern Fur Seals, were clean and accessible. More recently, shorelines have become the constant end points for man-made debris. The community has continued to find innovative solutions to the marine debris issue, conserving the habitat of cherished wildlife.
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Paddling marine debris back from a Maumee River island cleanup with Wood County Parks staff (Photo: Partners for Clean Streams).
Spanning eight states from Minnesota to New York and forming a water boundary between the United States and Canada, the Great Lakes region has the second largest coastline in the United States, behind Alaska. Unfortunately, the Great Lakes have had their fair share of environmental problems, including marine debris.
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A volunteer removes a bicycle from the Niagara River watershed (Photo: Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper).
Western New York State lies in the heart of the lower Great Lakes Basin and includes the Niagara River Watershed. The Niagara River Watershed is notable for its important habitats, and has been internationally recognized as an important migratory route for birds. For 30 years, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper has been preventing litter from polluting local waterways through land-based cleanups in the region.
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Debris accumulated in the Goat Canyon Sediment Basin in the Tijuana River Valley (Photo: Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve).
California is home to 12% of the nation’s population, with 26 million people living in counties along its 3,427 mile coastline. The average American generates an average of 4.5 lbs of trash per day (EPA estimate as of 2017) multiplied by 26 million people, that's 117,000,000 lbs of trash generated just from California's coastal population for one day! Inevitably some portion of that waste is littered, lost, or “leaked” through waste management and can eventually reach California’s coastal ocean and become marine debris.
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Visible “crop circles” are formed from the swing of anchor chains, which scour eel grass habitat (Photo: Audubon Society of California).
In 1967, soul singer Otis Redding wrote the hit song (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay while visiting a friend’s houseboat on Richardson’s Bay, an inlet in northern San Francisco Bay. To this day, the area surrounding Richardson’s Bay has a bohemian vibe and is home to a melting pot of residents who share a historic maritime culture. However, in the last few years, the number of illegally anchored vessels in the area has nearly doubled, threatening water quality, navigation, and habitat.
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