Marine Debris and Plastics Links
Beach Clean Ups
COASTSWEEP
Great Beach Cleanup
Fishing Gear Recovery
Gear-Hub
NFWF Fishing For Energy
NOAA Marine Debris Program
Orly Genger, Artist
Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation
Net Your Problem
Education
5 Gyres Institute
From The Bow Seat
Balloons Blow
Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment
Mass Green Network
Ocean Conservancy
Plastic Oceans
The Rozalia Project
Recent Press
2026
Plastic Tsunami Bears Down on Bay State (ecoRI News, 2/4/2026)
New state regulation allows easier cleanup of ‘ghost’ fishing gear (The New Bedford Light, 2/2/2026)
Info on new fishing gear regulations available at Hyannis event on Saturday (Cape Cod.com, 1/29/2026)
Healey-Driscoll Administration Expands Opportunities for Cleanup of Fishing Gear Debris (Mass.gov, 1/27/2026)
2025
Wash-Ashore Art in Action (New England Living Magazine, 2025 Issue 2, pages 55-64)
Army of Volunteers Cleans up Marsh Island (New Bedford Light, 11/5/25)
Volunteers wanted for clean up of Fairhaven’s Marsh Island for “a cleanup like we have never seen!” (New Bedford News, 10/22/25)
JUST ONE STATION: Volunteers clean up more than 10,000 pounds of debris from Peddocks Island (WHDH TV 7 News, Boston)
Center for Coastal Studies launches marine debris cleanups this fall (WCAI, 9/8/25)
Sperm Whale Response: Marine Debris (Whale and Dolphin Conservation blog, 8/7/25)
LISTEN: World Ocean Day this Sunday with Center for Coastal Studies (Cape Cod.com, 6/6/25)
Marine Debris Guru, Combining Music, Islands and Shipwrecks (Lower Cape TV, 6/5/25)
Headed to the beach in MA? Watch out for marine debris (Public News Service, 6/1/25)
Cape Climate with Laura Ludwig, WOMR (5/19/25)
Annie Lewandowski Hears Jazz in Whale Songs (Provincetown Independent, 4/23/25)
Law Amended to Enhance Clean Up of Derelict Fishing Gear (Mass.gov, 1/24/25)
When abandoned fishing nets, traps become ‘ghost gear’: ‘No place in our environment,’(Cape Cod Times, 1/1/2025)
2024
CCS Insider Update, Laura Ludwig (12/11/24)
Once-in-a-generation: Historic cleanup breathes new life into Boston Harbor Islands (The Tufts Daily, 10/10/24)
Highly technical adventure cleanup’ swarms Boston Harbor Islands, clearing rusted lobster traps, scrap metal (Boston Globe, 10/3/24)
Great Beach Cleanup: Volunteers gather trash on Truro beach on day three of four-day event (Cape Cod Times, 9/29/24)
Volunteers collect tons of trash, marine debris during week-long cleanup of Boston Harbor Islands (Hull Times, 9/26/24)
Historic Cleanup of Boston Harbor Islands Gets Help from All Hands (WBZ, 9/23/24)
Massive cleanup hauls generations of trash off Boston Harbor Islands (WGBH 9/23/24)
Ambitious cleanup set to launch Friday for five Boston Harbor Islands; agencies unite to remove marine debris (Boston Globe, 9/12/24)
Environmental concerns: A closer look at Vineyard Wind turbine debris (WCAI, 8/8/24)
Vineyarders take out Cuttyhunk’s beach trash (MV Times, 5/28/24)
2024 WaterWatch Lecture Series
Regional Collaboration to Address Marine Debris in the Gulf of Maine (recorded webinar, Jan. 30, 2024)
2023
‘Ghost Gear’ piles up in the Gulf of Maine amid plastic onslaught on oceans (PBS NewsHour, Sept. 19, 2023)
Letter to the Editor: “Have you seen this ‘trash?’ (Block Island Times, July 21, 2023)
Collaborations for a Cleaner Ocean (Lower Cape TV, July 19, 2023)
Eye on Earth: Cleaning lobster gear from the shores of Cuttyhunk Island (WBZ, April 27, 2023)
Center for Coastal Studies cleans up ‘ghost’ lobster gear washed up on Cuttyhunk Island (SouthCoast Today, April 7, 2023)
Shore Things: What two do about plastics on our beaches, in our ocean? (WCVB Boston)
2022
Rescuing our Oceans through Recycled Art (Lower Cape TV, 2022)
Report Highlights Potential Marine Debris Threat to Gulf of Maine Birds (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 4/19/2022)
Mysterious Yellow Tubing Washes Up Onto Cape Shores (Lower Cape TV, March 4, 2022)
Solving A Plastic Pollution Mystery (Plastic News, 2/23/2022)
Mysterious Yellow Plastic Strands on Cape Cod Beaches Lead to Explosive Revelation (Cape Cod Times, 2/18/2022)
2021
CCS Teams Scour Half a Ton of Trash From Back Shore (Provincetown Independent, 10/6/21)
An Afternoon with the Sirens of 114 Central Avenue (The Cornell Daily Sun, 10/4/21)
Marine Debris: A Data Story (Lower Cape TV, 11/22/21)
Shore Things: What we leave behind at the beach (WCVB Boston)
The Sunday Journal: Interview with Laura Ludwig (Cape Cod Broadcasting)
2020
Democracy of the Land: VFW Demolition Project (video by The Compact)
In April 2020, 163 organizations (including CCS), companies, and public officials signed the THIS LETTER generated by the organization Upstream Solutions, respectfully requesting the US Dept. of Health and Human Services to dismiss calls by the Plastics Industry Association to promote single-use plastic products as safer than other materials in response to the pandemic. Their request lacked sound scientific evidence, and marine debris researchers, advocates and stakeholders urged the Director to consider scientific data showing that increasing single-use plastics would not provide added protection against COVID-19 for the US population — and it would accelerate the human health and environmental impacts of climate change and plastic pollution.
2019
Removing Derelict Fishing Gear from Cape Cod Bay: Teachings from the Trash (NOAA Marine Debris Program, June 18, 2019)