Annual Gulf of Mexico Marine Debris Meeting Goes Virtual
OCTOBER 26, 2020 — On October 20-21, the Gulf of Mexico Alliance’s Marine Debris Cross Team Initiative held its annual two-day meeting to bring together entities across the Gulf that currently address marine debris issues.
This year’s meeting was hosted virtually by the Gulf of Mexico Alliance (GOMA) and featured a Grant Writing Workshop put on by Sea Change Consulting. More than 70 people attended the meeting, representing a diverse set of local, state, and federal governments, nonprofits, academic institutions, and industry across the Gulf of Mexico.
The main focus of this meeting was for the team to finish writing the new action plan for the region that will kick off in 2021 and guide us through 2026. The goal of this initiative is to assess, prevent, remove, and eliminate marine debris and litter in the Gulf of Mexico and its watersheds to enhance wildlife, fisheries, habitats, water resources, humans and the Gulf economy. Three focus areas — prevention, research, and removal of debris — were also identified, and actions and metrics to measure the success of the plan were drafted. This action plan, building on past actions plans, serves to facilitate and track marine debris activities across the Gulf of Mexico, as well as provide a focused direction to tackle marine debris issues on local, state, and regional scales.
For additional information, please contact Caitlin.Wessel@noaa.gov.