Flosam & Jetsam, Marine Debris. A whole new area of great importance.

Many of you know that my son, coastal and environmental policy analyst Paul Schmidt and I launched a Marine Debris Science program in connection with the Nova Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach, Florida. That was several years ago. We had a chance to talk with the "Dean of Marine Debris" Curtiss Ebbesmeyer in Seattle and we are huge fans of the study of marine debris.

Now an announcement:

"Today, the NOAA Marine Debris Program (MDP) is launching the Marine Debris Clearinghouse, an online resource for the rapidly growing marine debris community to discover, explore, and apply knowledge in marine debris research and operations. This resource will benefit the nation’s coastal managers, researchers, policy makers, educators, industry, and communities studying to mitigate marine debris and its impacts."

Woo hoo!  This legitimizes the whole field of marine debris science and policy.

Check it out:

http://marinedebrisblog.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/clearinghouse/

We hope you'll use this site and contribute to it's objectives. Please let us know on this site what YOU are doing with marine flotsam.

Here is the "must buy" book on this subject:

http://flotsametrics.com/

This is a great summer read. Interesting, scientific, and fun.