Education and awareness: keys to solving the marine debris problem

The Center for Environmental Education (CEE). a non-profit marine conservation organization, is conducting a national problems caused by plastic debris in the marine environment. Sponsored in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Entanglement Research Program and The Society of the Plastics Industry, the campaign includes the development and distribution of educational materials on this problem to the commercial fishing, merchant shipping, and plastics industries, as well as to recreational fishermen, pleasure boaters, arid the general public. CEE has recently established a National Marine Debris Clearinghouse for dissemination of educational materials and a National Marine Debris Data Base that will provide a means to monitor the effectiveness of educational efforts and new legislation directed at solving the marine debris problem.