Articles

• Baitfish
• 10 Questions on MASGC Communications Program
• Bays & Bayous Symposium
• Coastal Cleanup
• B-WET Grant
• NOAA Gives a Lift
• Oyster Invasion
• Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Featured Publication
• From the Director

Sea Briefs is a report on the results of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium.

Editor: Laura Bowie

This newsletter is available in PDF format from:
masgc.org/seabriefs

MASGC supports applied, interdisciplinary marine science research, education and outreach efforts to foster the sustainable development and management of the Mississippi and Alabama coasts and nearshore ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi-Alabama
Sea Grant Consortium
703 East Beach Drive
Ocean Springs, MS 39564
Phone: 228-818-8838
E-mail: seabriefs@masgc.org
MASGP 08-011-04

Coastal Cleanup '08
Coastal Cleanup nets 2,625 bags of trash

On Oct. 18, volunteers collected 40,131 pounds of trash – which is more than 20 tons of marine debris – during the 20th annual Mississippi Coastal Cleanup, part of the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) program. In three hours, more than 2,224 volunteers picked up 2,625 bags of trash along 173 miles of waterways in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties and the Barrier Islands.

Some of the items collected included thousands of cigarette butts, a tennis shoe with oysters growing on it, a plastic children’s swimming pool and two $20 bills. Approximately 60 percent of the debris found during the 2008 Mississippi Coastal Cleanup came from shoreline and recreational activities, such as beach picnics, festivals, sporting events and general littering. The source of most debris is human activity.

During last year’s ICC, about 378,000 volunteers worldwide removed debris from more than 33,000 miles of shoreline spanning 76 different nations. They collected 6 million pounds of debris.

The Mississippi Coastal Cleanup is made possible by the Mississippi Marine Debris Task Force, which includes MASGC.