NOAA International Efforts to Reduce Marine Debris and Build Capacity
Marine debris is a significant threat to the world’s oceans and inland waterways. Refuse dumped at sea, derelict fishing gear, and land-based sources of waste and trash all contribute to the problem and can impact U.S. resources despite originating in other countries or waters outside of our national jurisdiction. At the international level, NOAA addresses marine debris from both policy and legal standpoints, as well as from a project or capacity-building level, and the U.S. is party to many international conventions and active in international fora which impact marine debris.
NOAA is engaged in several international projects and capacity-building efforts to address marine debris. These include:
Joint marine debris project between the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the Republic of Korea.
Collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)to provide technical assistance to countries in the Wider Caribbean Region.
The National Sea Grant Office and Indonesia partnership to share examples of how the U.S. Sea Grant Network operates and responds to coastal hazards, including marine debris.
The United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans (UNICPO)to engage in focused discussions on marine debris, a topic of discussion at the June 2005 meeting.
- Law of the Sea Convention
- MARPOL Annex V
- London Convention
- FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing
- Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA)
- Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs)
- Cartagena Convention
Law of the Sea Convention - Establishes general rights and obligations for the ocean. It provides that all States have a duty to protect and preserve the marine environment, including rare and fragile ecosystems and species habitats. This duty extends to all forms and sources of pollution, including marine debris and derelict fishing gear. Those engaged in commercial and recreational fishing and coastal States must cooperate to conserve living marine resources, including fish, marine mammals and endangered and threatened species. The U.S. is not a party to the convention but considers it reflective of customary international law. [More information]
MARPOL Annex V - The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) prohibits disposal of all plastics (fish nets) from vessels, although there is an exception for certain accidental losses. Vessels of 400 Gross Tons and above must have garbage management plans and report all at sea disposals. The Annex V Guidelines encourage technological development to minimize losses and maximize recoveries such as gear identification systems and use of degradable materials, stress the importance of recording and reporting gear losses and recommend increasing shore-based disposal facilities. [More information]
London Convention - Regulates dumping of wastes at sea on a global basis, with the exception of wastes generated by the normal operations of ships, which instead are subject to MARPOL. [More information]
FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries - A guidance document, from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), it provides that fishing should be conducted in accordance with International Maritime Organization (IMO) requirements (e.g., MARPOL Annex V) to protect the marine environment and prevent loss of fishing gear. [More information]
UN Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) - An elaboration of the general provisions of the United Nation's (UN) Law of the Sea Convention applicable to high seas fishing for straddling stocks and highly migratory species such as tuna. It provides that States are under the obligation to minimize pollution, wastes, discards and catches by lost or abandoned gear. It also requires that states minimize impacts on species associated with targeted fish, particularly endangered and threatened species. [More information]
Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) - Regulate fishing for fish species such as tuna in the various ocean regions. The Fish Stock Agreement provides that States acting through RFMOs have a duty to cooperate to conserve living marine resources, including the duty to adopt and apply generally recommended international minimum standards for the conduct of responsible fishing operations (e.g., the FAO Code of Conduct). In addition, the treaties creating two RFMOs, the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Convention contain specific obligations to minimize fishing by lost or abandoned gear.
Cartagena Convention - A legal commitment by participating governments to protect, develop, and manage their common waters individually or jointly. It requires Contracting Parties to take all appropriate measures to prevent, reduce, and control pollution from ships, dumping, seabed activities, land-based activities, and airborne pollution. The convention governs the marine environments of the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and certain areas of the Atlantic Ocean. [More information]
NOAA has been and is involved in several international projects and capacity-building efforts to address marine debris.
- UNEP Global Programme of Action
- Southeast Asia Regional Sea Grant Workshop
- United Nations Open-Ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans
- NOAA-Korea Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) Joint Marine Debris Project
- Other Activities
The marine and coastal ecosystems of the wider Caribbean, particularly coral reef systems, are under increasing threats from pollution, over exploitation, conflicting resource usage and alteration of the coastal environment as a result of current coastal development practices. Caribbean nations have acknowledged the problem of polluted runoff from agriculture and coastal development, and an agreement between UNEP Global Programme of Action and NOAA was established to provide technical assistance to countries to develop National Programs of Action (NPA). NOAA is contributing 3 people to provide technical assistance to countries in the Wider Caribbean Region interested in developing NPAs. Partners include appropriate Ministries in each country, primarily the Ministry of the Environment.
Once formally adopted by a country, an NPA is a viable mechanism to assist the country in meeting the requirements of the Cartagena Convention relative to land-based sources of pollution. Benefits to society include cleaner waters and improved health and enhanced ecotourism based on reducing pollutant loadings to near shore coral reefs.
In response to the President’s U.S. Ocean Action Plan, NOAA Research’s Office of International Activities and the National Sea Grant Program joined with Indonesia's Sea Partnership Program to host a Southeast Asia Regional Workshop from April 30 to May 5, 2005 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The emphasis of the workshop was to share examples of how the National Sea Grant Network operates and responds to coastal hazards including debris collection management, legal analysis of debris removal and placement, and zoning regulations and land tenure systems that are impacted by marine debris. There was also a discussion of how marinas play a role in debris management.
In June 2005, the U.S. joined the international community at the United Nations Open-Ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans to engage in focused discussions on marine debris. These carefully selected discussion topics at UNICPO frequently result in increased international attention on an issue and/or further action.
NOAA provides support to the Ocean Conservancy to expand programming and produce materials for their International Coastal Cleanup in the Caribbean Region, and hopes to work with the Secretariat for the Cartagena Convention on marine debris projects.
In 2004, NOAA implemented a monofilament recycling project to reduce marine debris in Puerto Rico caused by discarded fishing lines and also awarded a contract to Amigos de Amona, a community-based local non-profit organization based in Puerto Rico to establish an educational campaign about an initiative to build and install recycling bins at local marinas.
NOAA is assisted the U.S. Department of State in preparing proposed text on marine debris and derelict fishing gear for inclusion in the 2005 United Nations General Assembly Resolution 59/25.
Other ways in which NOAA engages in capacity building include hosting the 2000 International Conference on Derelict Fishing Gear in the Ocean Environment in Honolulu, Hawaii, and participating in the 2004 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Workshop on cooperative international approaches to address derelict fishing gear and marine debris.