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The Wrack Line is a newsletter for partners, participants, and data users of NOAA's Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment Project (MDMAP). Thank you for reading!
Beach chairs line the shoreline at an MDMAP site in Wakulla, Florida (2025). Photo Credit: Melissa and Max W.
Celebrating 20 Years of the NOAA Marine Debris Program
This year, the NOAA Marine Debris Program is celebrating its 20th anniversary of cleaning our coasts. As we mark this milestone, we are reflecting on two decades of collaboration, progress, and shared commitment to addressing marine debris across the United States and U.S. Territories. This anniversary also offers an opportunity to recognize our partners, including the entire marine debris community, educators, students, families, and volunteers, whose contributions have helped shape the program’s impact over the past 20 years. We invite you to follow along by subscribing to our blog as we highlight stories from the program over the years, showcase current ongoing efforts, and look ahead to a future where our global ocean and its coasts are free from the impacts of marine debris.
To learn more, please visit the NOAA Marine Debris Program website.
Database Updates
Don’t Let Debris Weigh You Down, Document It!
You now have the option to track the weight of your debris directly in the MDMAP Database! Previously, teams who weighed their debris would enter those values in the “Notes” section, but new fields have been added at the transect level.
 A screenshot of the Transect Survey Form on the MDMAP Database showcasing the newly implemented Debris Weight fields (outlined in orange here). Credit: NOAA
To track debris weights in the database:
- Weigh your debris from each transect in kilograms (to the nearest 0.1kg) and record it in the new “Debris Weight” fields (orange rectangle above), from there, the database will calculate the total weight of debris observed in your survey on the Cover Sheet.
- If debris cannot be weighed because it is unsafe to reach, buried in the sand, etc., estimate the weight to the best of your ability. Online weight estimators or product descriptions can help inform your estimation.
- To measure your weights, we recommend using a tension scale, most commonly used for weighing fish or luggage.
Not tracking debris weight?
- Don’t worry, this is an optional field. If you do not measure any weights during your survey, simply leave that field blank and it will be recorded as a null value rather than a zero.
The Transect Survey Forms will be updated online soon so that the paper datasheets align with the database.
Making the Map More Navigable
When looking at the MDMAP database map, one will find tiny pin icons to represent each site. The number of pins has grown a great deal due to the implementation of the MDMAP Nationwide Survey, such that almost one third of all registered sites represent that project alone.
To help participants, data users, and interested community members better navigate the database, the MDMAP Nationwide Survey sites now appear orange so they stand out from the purple participatory pins.
 A screenshot of the MDMAP Database depicting the updated pin colors for participatory (purple) and Nationwide Survey (orange). Credit: NOAA
Visualizing Your Data: Pie Charts
The MDMAP Database can produce survey data visualizations at many levels, from individual surveys, sites, the entire dataset, geographical boundaries, or participating groups. The Debris Composition pie chart (pictured below) is used to visually assess the proportion of each material type and debris category observed.
Previously, when generating a Debris Composition pie chart, the most common material was always colored purple, the second-most common pink, and so on. Because debris composition can vary widely across surveys, this did not allow for the direct comparison of two charts. To make Debris Composition charts easier to compare, our team designated specific colors to each material type.
From now on, the following colors will represent the MDMAP material groups:
- Plastic = Purple
- Metal = Orange
- Glass = Dark Blue
- Cloth/Fabric = Green
- Rubber = Pink
- Processed Wood = Yellow
- Unclassifiable = Light Blue
To create an interactive data visualization, head to the MDMAP Database, filter the dataset to your liking, and click ‘Visualize.’ The NOAA team hopes this update makes these tools more useful to you!
 A screenshot shows the comparison between the Debris Composition of the entire database (left) and the state of Texas, USA (right). Credit: NOAA
Nationwide Survey Update
Year 1 of the MDMAP Nationwide Survey is well underway with over three-quarters of sampling finished. Once the remaining surveys conclude this month, the team will finalize data verification so that @Orchard can begin their analysis.
Survey progress and data can be tracked on the MDMAP database.
 Mary, a surveyor with the MDMAP Nationwide Survey, completes the Site Characterization Form along a New England shoreline.
So far, @Orchard has:
- Established 595 of the 620 sites
- Conducted 922 surveys
We are pleased to announce that Year 2 of the Nationwide Survey is underway! Rather than surveying all 62 sites in each region, @Orchard will sample only the 12 quarterly replicated sites as dictated by the survey design. Sampling will begin this month. For a refresher on the nuances of the design, see the paper published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, Progress toward meaningful marine debris shoreline monitoring: Confronting the challenges of survey design in the United States.
MDMAP Participant Highlights
A Trashy Smile
Using debris from a March 2026 survey, surveyors in Cape Falcon Marine Reserve, Oregon, arranged what might be one of the cutest debris composite photos ever submitted to MDMAP.
Creativity is welcome when arranging your debris; just make sure all items are all visible in a single layer (like in this example) before snapping your photo.
Credit: North Coast Land Conservancy
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Five Summers of Surveys
This summer, Galveston Bay Foundation conducted their 150th survey and celebrated their 5th year of consecutive surveys across their 3 active sites on Pelican Island, Texas. Kudos to the team for their continuous monitoring and removing marine debris along their coastline.
Credit: Galveston Bay Foundation
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Interesting Find
A unique green bottle was found during a May 2026 survey at Kamilo Point, Hawaiʻi.
Despite weathering from the sun and waves, the symbols and characters on the bottle were clear enough to identify this item as a product marketed to quickly treat symptoms of coronary heart disease.
Credit: Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund
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Unfriendly Neighbors on Site!
While searching their transect in Vermilion, Ohio, last April, a surveyor heard a hissing noise, only to find a well-camouflaged Canada goose (Branta canadensis) guarding its nest. Lucky for this goose, they were just looking for marine debris.
When arriving on-site for a survey, always be sure to scan the area for any safety concerns. If one of your transects falls too close to a nest, sensitive habitat, or other hazard, randomly choose another. This ensures safety for wildlife and surveyors alike!
Credit: Old Woman Creek NERR
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Macro Photography Helps Improve Macro Debris Data Quality
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 Examples of how e-cigarettes, also known as “vapes,” vary in color, shape, and size. Photo Credit: YarikL via Adobe Stock.
Surveyors at Heceta Head Lighthouse Beach, Oregon, recently captured a highly detailed photo of some bleached seagrass up close.
Why is this find so interesting to the MDMAP team? There have been multiple surveys misidentifying bleached seagrass as marine debris, as its texture and appearance can look like shreds of plastic film, ribbon, or paper wrappers.
If you encounter suspected bleached seagrass during a survey, take a moment to look closely for any indicators that it is made of plant material. In the photo above, you can see that the grass has parallel lines that continue through the entirety of the blade. These lines are made of elongated plant cells and are a good indication that something is organic and should not be recorded in the Item Counts section of the Transect Survey Form.
Still in doubt about whether an item should be counted in a survey? Capture a photo and upload it to your survey for our team to review. The MDMAP team will reach out to you with an answer.
MDMAP data can be used to inform decision makers and community planners. To ensure data users have accurate marine debris data to work with, it’s important that non-debris items are not mistakenly reported as marine debris.
Though bleached seagrass should not be counted in the “Item Counts” section, novel site conditions like this are worth documenting in the “Notes” section of the Survey Coversheet.
Categorization Corner
The heat of summer reminds us of the importance of hydration, so let’s discuss how different parts of plastic beverage bottles are categorized within the MDMAP protocol.
 An example of an e-cigarette (left) next to removable cartridges. The cartridges (three items on the right) are disposable once empty and are intended to be used with a reusable battery. Photo Credit: wimage72 via Adobe Stock
Depending on what part of a plasitc beverage bottle you find, it will be categorized differently:
- A whole single-use bottle (with or without cap): Plastic - Beverage Bottles
- A lone bottle cap: Plastic - Bottle/Container Caps
- A loose bottle label (film): Food Wrappers
- Look closely at plastic fragments you find. You may be able to identify a bottle by the recognizable ridges you see on the sides.
- Reusable water bottles should be categorized as Other Plastic or Other Metal, depending on the predominant outer material type.
No need to memorize this information, as it’s captured in detail in the MDMAP Item Categorization Guide.
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Photo (left): A surveyor with the Galveston Bay Foundation holds a metal thermos found during a chilly February 2026 survey. This thermos would be classified as Other Metal. In the notes section of the transect form, additional details can be provided (metal drink thermos with evidence of biofouling).
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Training Videos
Project Video
Click on the image below to view a short video about MDMAP. Share the link to spread the word about this project!
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