Wood, plastic fishing nets, buoys and other materials are just a few of the garbage that gets tossed up in even the most remote areas of Alaska’s coast. Programs focused on cleaning up this marine debris are receiving an injection of funds by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration because of an influx of grant money derived from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Nearly $14 million of federal funds are earmarked for two distinct programs targeted to clean up debris from the sea in the state. The money is dispersed through the NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and it is funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was enacted in 2021.
Peter Murphy is Alaska’s regional debris coordinator at NOAA. He says the new programs go far beyond clearing up debris that is already in the area.
“But it’s also about prevention, and finding ways to limit the amount that gets into the ocean, since in the long run, you’ll never likely to have the ability clean the way to get rid of the mess,” he said.
The majority of that $5.85 million will be given toward the University of Alaska Fairbanks to create an center for Marine Debris based in Kodiak which will act as a regional headquarters in marine debris disposal efforts across the state. The center will eventually be able recycle and process debris from ships that are transported to it.
The project’s partner organizations comprise Alaska Sea Grant, the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Douglas Indian Association, Matson, the Native Village of Port Heiden and the Ocean Plastics Recovery Project.
The other initiative is focused on the removal of abandoned fishing equipment out of Chesapeake Bay on the East Coast The $8 million will be allocated to this initiative, led by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. It will also include the grant program that businesses from Alaska are able to benefit from.
Murphy stated that abandoning gear has become a major issue all over the country and has a significant impact on fishing. For instance, a research of Southeast Alaska showed that abandoned crab pots still caught crabs as well as other marine animals many years after they had been lost.
“Fishing gear is a particularly harmful kind of marine debris since once it is lost or is abandoned within the ocean, it continues to do what it was made to accomplish. It continues to nab animals, but it does so in a random manner,” he said.
The funding for both programs is included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for the current year. The fishing gear and marine debris cleaning programs are scheduled to begin this summer.
