OceanPlastic List is the global online community for sharing knowledge on the research, management, and prevention of ocean plastic and other marine debris. The community includes scientists, resource managers, policymakers, conservationists, industry representatives, and others.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program envisions the global ocean and its coasts free from the impacts of marine debris. The mission of the NOAA Marine Debris Program is to investigate and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris.

Why teach about estuaries? This suite of estuary education resources help educators bring estuarine science into the classroom through hands-on learning, experiments, fieldwork, and data explorations. These specially designed lessons, activities, data explorations, animations and videos can be used independently or as a supplement to existing curricula and can be adapted to meet any grade level.

Marine debris is a constant and challenging threat to communities all over the world. It can travel on currents across the ocean, reach remote shorelines where very few people live, and cause major problems for both people and wildlife. No matter where you live, it's important for us all to understand the problem. Marine debris is created by people, which means we can also be the solution.

Plastic in our oceans has clear detriments to the ecosystems inhabiting them; nearly 700 marine species are reported to have encountered plastic debris, which can lead to entanglement, ingestion, or death. Protecting marine life from further harm caused by plastic pollution is the main driver behind our mission to rid the oceans of plastic. At the same time, we need to ensure that our cleanup operations have minimal negative side effects on marine ecosystems.

Marine life, as we know it, is suffering irreparable damage from the chemical pollution of the waters and the millions of tons of mismanaged waste dumped in the oceans each year. The result is a planetary crisis with over 100 million marine animal's lives get lost every year, and the decay of the ocean's ecosystem.

Persistent plastics, with an estimated lifetime for degradation of hundreds of years in marine conditions, can break up into micro- and nanoplastics over shorter timescales, thus facilitating their uptake by marine biota throughout the food chain. These polymers may contain chemical additives and contaminants, including some known endocrine disruptors that may be harmful at extremely low concentrations for marine biota, thus posing potential risks to marine ecosystems, biodiversity and food availability.

There has been a growing of public awareness of plastics found in the ocean environment. Plastics are found at the top and within the water column, in ocean floor sediments, and within beach material. This activity will demonstrate the ease of movement of plastics from your home directly into the ocean environment. Students will explore the typical products which contain plastics and learn how to calculate the concentration of plastics found in a chosen personal care product.

Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, or other large bodies of water. This manmade debris gets into the water in many ways. People often leave trash on beaches or throw it into the water from boats or offshore facilities, such as oil rigs. Sometimes, litter makes its way into the ocean from land. This debris is carried by storm drains, canals, or rivers. The wind can even blow trash from landfills and other areas into the water. Storms and accidents at sea can cause ships to sink or to lose cargo.

The patented Litter Glitter is a tactical, small stream litter collection device used to intercept floating litter from storm water runoff. Osprey Initiative utilizes these devices to intercept litter closer to the source, preventing its flow further downstream. Initial tests indicate a 80+% success rate in preventing the downstream loss of floating litter. Osprey collects this data to create tailored solutions, while also handling all aspects of installing and maintaining the Litter Glitter.