Marine Debris Ocean Stewardship Program: An International Pilot Project

The Marine Debris Ocean Stewardship Program is an International Pilot Project.  110 students were at the Boardwalk Beach on Monday, March 27 to collect plastic trash that pollutes the ocean.  They will be analyzing the trash back on campus at their classes and at the organic garden/ recycling center they build / improve on with this grant. Save our Shores experts were there too to help. The teachers from SVHS were Adi Welch, Marine Biology and Mark Andrews, Environmental Studies.

Here you can see the San Lorenzo River Mouth, at the Boardwalk Beach after one month of storms and extreme weather. That is where the students where picking up plastic debris. About 80% of marine debris reaches the ocean via storm drains, creeks and rivers; it is all branches of the ocean!

The students were using NOAA's Marine Debris KIT forms to record the plastics collected. NOAA, the Scotts Valley Rotary and the Tampa Bay Community Foundation funded the program. 

The students will be coming to our Rotary meeting on May 1st to present their findings and their hands-on projects to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean.