Nancy Wallace News

The Department of Commerce and NOAA announced the availability of up to $28 million across two funding opportunities to address marine debris throughout the coastal U.S., Great Lakes, territories and Freely Associated States. These two Fiscal Year 2024 funding opportunities are part of NOAA’s Climate-Ready Coasts initiative under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and allow NOAA to support impactful, large-scale marine debris removal projects, as well as the installation…

NOAA has awarded more than $675,000 in grants to 13 projects aimed at aiding coastal communities in their fight against marine debris, the agency announced. This is the third year NOAA’s Marine Debris Program has awarded grants through its Marine Debris Prevention through Education and Outreach grant competition. “Education and outreach are important pillars of our program and we look forward to working with the recipients to help reach even more people,” said Nancy Wallace, the program’s director. The program’s education and outreach partners across the country have inspired thousands to become better ocean stewards, and have carried the message that prevention is the key to solving the marine debris problem.

Southern California residents lose millions of dollars each year avoiding littered, local beaches in favor of choosing cleaner beaches that are farther away and may cost more to reach, according to a new NOAA-funded Marine Debris Program economics study. Reducing marine debris even by 25 percent at beaches in and near California’s Orange County could save residents roughly $32 million during three months in the summer by not having to travel longer distances to other beaches.

NOAA’s Marine Debris Program provided $967,000 through its Restoration Center to support locally driven, community-based marine debris prevention and removal projects. Eleven groups across the country received funding to remove derelict fishing nets, litter, lumber, tires and other harmful marine debris from shorelines and coastal waters. “Marine debris plagues coastlines all over the country, and these communities have the expertise and motivation to address it,” said Nancy Wallace, Marine Debris Program director.

New legislation expands scope of NOAA marine debris program to deal with natural disaster debris. President Obama has signed legislation reauthorizing the NOAA Marine Debris Program and its mission to address the harmful impacts of marine debris on the United States. The program, which is housed within NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, was originally created in 2006 by the Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act. For the most part, the NOAA Marine Debris Program ’s mandates remain the same: to identify…