This season in ESA, our class went on our first field trip of the year! I couldn't attend, but in conducting my own research on the organization, I learned a lot about NOAA and marine debris.
The NOAA Marine Debris Program put in place the Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP) to determine the magnitude and impacts of the marine debris problem. This program monitors beaches and waters to create records of both the quantity and types of debris in the environment. In doing so, they hope to identify the problem and then prevent it from spreading. MDMAP utilizes citizen scientists to help collect data which is what our class went to help with! The project logs all plastic debris finds at this link! Marine debris causes a myriad of problems. Economic losses, habitat destruction, wildlife entanglement, animal ingestion and alien species transport are all damaging ramifications of marine debris. The most fascinating impact to me is alien species transport. Organisms from one location can cling to debris and as the debris travels to a new location, those organisms are transported. The transported organisms then become invasive and can damage the indigenous species. Explore more about the problem here! I hope that projects like this continue and that this information can help find solutions to the marine debris problem!
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