Amanda Sartain
Mississippi State University
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Status: Past
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Project Date Range: 02-01-2022 to 01-31-2025
Keywords: marine debris, Mississippi Coastal Cleanup, inland cleanup, marine debris prevention, citizen science, collective science, economic benefits
Objectives
Reduce the barriers to implementation of marine debris prevention projects. Increase understanding of the importance and benefits of reducing or eliminating marine debris in the general public hospitality restaurant tourism government and commercial fishing sectors. Identify and promote successful marine debris prevention programs. Increase the prevalence of cleanup and prevention initiatives.
Methodology
The investigators will use several methods to gather and convey marine debris-related information to stakeholders. These methods include evaluating the success benefits and cost-effectiveness of existing marine debris prevention and removal initiatives; hosting cleanup and marine debris education events; facilitating and assisting communities with their own marine debris prevention and removal initiatives; training citizen scientists to collect and disseminate marine debris data; training the commercial fishing industry on marine debris data collection and prevention actions; developing research-based print and web-resources highlighting marine debris issues and actions; and using these materials to train the sectors identified in the objectives section above about the importance and economic benefits of marine debris prevention and removal.
Rationale
Marine debris is any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly intentionally or unintentionally disposed of or abandoned into the marine environment. Marine debris includes various discarded items including abandoned fishing gear such as ghost nets fishing line old buoys crab traps and abandoned/wrecked boats. Marine debris also includes basic human trash items like food wrappers paper glass metal hygiene utensils containers rubber and wood. The magnitude of marine debris globally is alarming. The persistence of marine debris specifically plastics in the environment can adversely flora fauna water quality flooding tourism and subsequently the economy. Therefore there is a need for extension programming focused on litter and marine debris across the general public hospitality restaurant tourism government and commercial fishing sectors.