Marine Pollution Prevention: Keeping Our Coasts and Waterways Clean
Marine pollution crops up in many forms—from major oil spills and industrial waste, to pollution runoff and marine debris. Learn the ways NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration works to prevent marine pollution and how you can prevent it, too.
![Pollution boom used in the Selendang Ayu oil spill. Booming is a common technique used by spill responders to prevent oil from spreading and impacting sensitive areas and habitats. (December 2004 - Unalaska Island, Alaska credit: NOAA) Oil in pollution boom.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/1723/DSC00474.jpeg)
The most important element in prevention is preparedness. OR&R combats pollution before it happens by preparing for a variety of scenarios, such as an oil spill in Arctic waters or damage to an industrial facility caused by a hurricane. While changes in policy and procedure can help to prevent the incidents entirely, there is always a potential for mechanical or human failure. Through training, exercises, and planning, responders can limit the pollution impacts of the incidents that do happen.
Below, explore marine pollution prevention through a series of blogs about prevention pollution on historic shipwrecks and during disasters, and how you can prevent marine debris and runoff pollution in your lawncare.
Backyard Pollution Prevention: 5 Ways to Help Keep Waterways Healthy
When it comes to keeping waterways clean, we all have a part to play. Some of the most simple steps can take place in your own backyard. In our latest blog, here are five ways you can help keep waterways healthy ... Read more.
Preventing Marine Pollution Before the Storm
Hurricanes pose threats from storm surge, inland flooding, wind damage, and even tornadoes, but a lesser known impact is the natural and man-made marine debris they cause. In this blog, learn how you can help prevent marine pollution before a storm hits. ... Read more.
The Power of Prevention to Keep the Sea Free of Marine Debris
Our ocean is filled with items that don’t belong there. From our everyday food wrappers, plastic bottles, and cigarettes to large and damaging derelict fishing nets and abandoned and derelict vessels, marine debris is a global problem that touches every corner of our ocean and Great Lakes. Although cleaning up marine debris is a helpful way to address the problem, the best way to keep marine debris out of our environment is by preventing it. ... Read more.
Preventing Marine Pollution through a Historic Shipwreck Database
Prevention efforts have reduced recent ship sinkings, but what about the thousands of historical shipwrecks in U.S. waters? Many of these sit out of sight, damaged, collapsed onto the seabed—some threatening to leak their oil cargo or fuel. Is there a way to prevent spills from ships that have already sunk? Improvements in underwater technologies now allow salvage companies to safely conduct oil removal operations from sunken ships, but where to start? ... Read more.
Learn More:
- Preventing and Preparing for Oil Spills in the Arctic.
- Safe Boating and Prevention of Small Oil Spills.
- Three Ways You Can Reduce Your Household's Pollution Footprint.
- Small Oil Spill Prevention in the San Juan Islands.
- Preventing Plastic in the Great Lakes.
- Tips for Preventing Small-Vessel Oil Spills.
more images
![On April 19, 2017, it was discovered that the tug Powhatan, owned by Samson Tug & Barge, had sunk at the dock resulting in a sheen of oil. The tug was in the process of being stripped. (April 2017 - Sitka, Alaska credit: Samson Tug & Barge) Pollution boom around a boat.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/TugPowhatanPhotoProvidedbySamsonTugandBarge.jpeg)
![Washington Sea Grant’s Aaron Barnett preparing to distribute small oil spill kits in 2015. (MaryAnn Wagner/Washington Sea Grant) A person posing in front of a pile of bundles.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/wa-sea-grant-aaron-barnett-oil-spill-kits-bilge-socks_credit-maryann-wagner-wa-sea-grant_480.jpeg)
![Marine debris, washed into the marina through storm drains and street runoff. (April 2009 - Hawaii credit: NOAA MDP) Trash in a marina.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/runoff.jpeg)
![Wrecked boats at a marina in Panama City, Florida following Hurricane Michael in October 2018. (October 2018 - Panama City, Florida credit: NOAA) Hurricane debris on a dock.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/Michael-Wrecked-boats-Panama-City.jpeg)
![Clearing a derelict vessel from the Hylebos Waterway in Tacoma, Washington. NOAA has created several tools and resources for mapping, tracking, and dealing with shipwrecks and abandoned vessels. (Washington Department of Natural Resources/ Tammy Robbins) Used under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. A derelict vessel being pulled out of the water.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/removing-sunken-vessel-hylebos-waterway_wa-dept-nat-resources_tammy-robbins_980.jpeg)
![On May 14, 1942, the U.S. Army Air Corps photographed the location of the burning tanker Potrero del Llano. Since 2010, NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration and Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, working with the U.S. Coast Guard, have been systematically looking at which shipwrecks might pose a substantial threat of leaking oil still on board. This work is part of NOAA's Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) project.(National Archives) A black and white photo of smoke billowing from a sinking vessel.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/burning-tanker-wreck-potrero-del-llano-us-army-air-corps_national_archives_472.jpeg)
![Disasters such as hurricanes are dangerous for their impacts such as storm surge, flooding, and high speed winds, but the marine debris they create also poses a threat. Disaster debris.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/disaster-debris-1.jpeg)
![Rain garden at the VA Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System facility in Leeds, Massachusetts. Rain gardens are a great way to help filter out pollutants before the water reaches our waterways and coasts. Image credit: U.S. Air Force. A rain garden.](https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/unnamed%20%2828%29.png)