By Peter Murphy, Alaska Regional Coordinator, NOAA Marine Debris
Program One of the challenges NOAA faces when addressing marine
debris is finding it. That may seem odd when you think of
bottles and trash on your nearest beach, but it becomes much
more difficult in the open ocean. Debris – including items from
the 2011 tsunami in Japan – is difficult to locate reliably. In
addition to the fact that debris sometimes floats just below the
water’s surface, it can be spread out across huge stretches of
ocean. Imagine a search area roughly three times the size of the
continental United States. Even when we look at an area where we
know there is likely to be debris, we may not detect anything.
That could be because there isn’t anything there to see (less
likely) or because our sensors aren’t able to detect what is
there (more likely). However, NOAA is looking at many innovative
ways to solve that challenge. Earlier this summer, we tested an
Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) off the coast of Oʻahu to see if
it might be