NCCF staff provided remarks about their project that aims to remove 44 derelict vessels along with more than two million pounds of construction materials, dock debris, and derelict fishing gear. The MDP Southeast Regional Coordinator, Caroline Morris, described the Marine Debris Program mission and provided an overview of how Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act funds are being used to fund new projects around the country.

Vessel removal contractors spoke about the quantities of debris they find and remove from their home waters along North Carolina’s outer banks. They talked about the impacts of marine debris on the fragile coastal environment and how marsh grasses grow back rapidly in sites where the contractors have removed debris.