The NOAA Marine Debris Weekly "eNewsletter" highlights projects that the Marine Debris Program has assisted in or supported in some way, news and updates on the Marine Debris Program, and upcoming funding opportunities. It also contains a listing of marine debris-related media hits from around the world.

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Lance Ferris, ASR

From www.abc.net.au
Posted Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:45pm AEDT

DARWIN, AUSTRALIA — A fishing tour has saved a group of endangered turtles from a ghost net off the coast near Darwin. Northern Territory Fisheries officers and WWF Australia are trying to determine the origin of the discarded foreign fishing net. While ghost nets are far too common in areas like the Gulf of Carpentaria, they are rare around Darwin. The tour group found the net at Fish Reef about 25 kilometres offshore. There was dead marine life in the net, but the group was able to save four turtles. One olive ridley turtle may have to have a flipper amputated but will eventually be released.

Deckhand Shannon Bubner says it is not what they wanted to find.

"Especially seeing beautiful animals like turtles getting caught up in there, you know helpless animals with nothing," the deckhand said. "[There's] no way they can help themselves out of there which is very distressing really."

Three other turtles were released back into the sea.

Ens. Tim Dolan/USCG

By Honolulu Star-Bulletin staff
POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Nov 11, 2008

HONOLULU, HAWAII — Crew members from a Honolulu-based Coast Guard cutter removed four tons of nets and debris from Kure Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands last week, Coast Guard officials said yesterday.

As part of a routine debris recovery trip, crew members aboard the cutter Kukui used two small boats to transport 36 loads from the atoll to the cutter over three days. [read more]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Current measures to prevent and reduce marine debris are inadequate, and the problem will likely worsen, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Research Council. The United States and the international maritime community should adopt a goal of "zero discharge" of waste into the marine environment, and a system to assess the effectiveness of existing and future marine debris prevention and reduction actions should be implemented. In addition, better leadership, coordination, and integration of mandates and resources are needed, as responsibilities for preventing and mitigating marine debris are scattered across federal organizations and management regimes.

"The committee found that despite all the regulations and limitations over the last 20 years, there are still large quantities of waste and litter in the oceans," said Keith Criddle, chair of the committee that wrote the report and the Ted Stevens Distinguished Professor of Marine Policy at the Juneau Center for Fisheries and Ocean Science, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. "We concluded that the United States must take the lead and coordinate with other coastal countries, as well as with local and state governments, to better manage marine debris and try to achieve zero discharge." [read more]

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 22, 2008 — EPA, NOAA and nine other federal agencies have announced the completion of an interagency report that guides the strategies of individual federal agencies and of the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC) to prevent and reduce marine debris. The report also discusses marine debris efforts, recent progress and innovative ways to reduce the problem in the future.

The report, written by IMDCC at the request of Congress, focuses on marine debris sources, impacts, and strategies, and represents another step in implementing recommendations called for in the President’s Ocean Action Plan.

Marine debris, which includes improperly discarded plastic grocery bags, bottles, ropes, tires, soda rings and lost fishing gear, is found in the ocean and along coasts around the world. Marine debris threatens public safety, hurts the economy with costly cleanups and deterred tourism, and harms and kills marine life such as seals, sea turtles, sea birds and coral reefs. [read more]