Debris Brigade Blog: Field Notes From Sea and Shore
The Marine Debris and Plastics Program works on land and at sea to locate, remove, and document plastic pollution during all four seasons, working with commercial and recreational fishermen and hundreds of community volunteers to improve the health of our marine environment. Follow along with team members as they describe their participation in ghost gear projects, shoreline cleanups, debris inventory and mapping, tackling the issue of marine plastic.
Peddocks Island 2025 Cleanup – A Transformative Experience
Blog post by Tony LaCasse From September 14 -17, 2025, twenty-eight members of the Center for Coastal Studies Beach Brigade collaborated with the Massachusetts Dept. of Conservation and Recreation on an "adventure cleanup" of Peddocks Island in Boston Harbor. Tony's...
CCS Marine Debris Program Concludes 2025 Ghost Gear Recovery Season
A blog post by Fritz McGirr, Marine Debris Operations Assistant Each spring, the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales enter Cape Cod Bay to feed before their journey further north for the summer. At this time from February 1st to mid-May, the...
A Marine Debris Diary: Adventure Cleanup on the Boston Harbor Islands
A blog post by Fritz McGirr, Marine Debris Operations Assistant Situated between seven and nine miles out into the harbor from Boston’s city center lie five of the 34 islands making up the Boston Harbor Islands. These five outer islands take the brunt of the wind and...
Remote Island Cleanup in Downeast, Maine with the Rozalia Project
The Rozalia Project is a non-profit organization based in Burlington, Vermont, and active throughout the Gulf of Maine via their research vessel the S/V American Promise. Built for Dodge Morgan in 1985 for his record-setting solo sail around the world, the vessel is a...
Fishing Gear and Marine Debris Removal Adventure on Cuttyhunk Island
Last week, 13 of the CCS Beach Brigade’s most adventurous volunteers joined the Marine Debris and Plastics Program on Cuttyhunk Island in Buzzards Bay to remove thousands of pounds of debris from the shores of the island. While the mission primarily centered on...
Update from Wilson, March/April 2024
Each month the Marine Debris and Plastics Program forms a “beach brigade” of local volunteers to help mitigate marine debris and collect data. This March, 16 volunteers joined us at High Head in Truro, with buckets, wheelbarrows and sleds to haul out the trash. We...
Welcome Wilson!
My name is Wilson Haims and I am the 2024 Joanna Toole Intern at the Center for Coastal Studies through the Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative. I look forward to spending the next three months working with the CCS Marine Debris Program to recover lost or abandoned fishing gear, collaborate with members of the fishing community in Provincetown, and work with marine debris and ghost gear data.
CCS Debris Spring Lookback
By Laura Ludwig, Manager, CCS Marine Debris and Plastics Program. I don't really remember when I first cleaned a shoreline, but these days I do it so frequently that I sometimes forget to reflect on where I just went, how beautiful it was on location, and how much...
My Year with the Marine Debris Program
By Kathryn Brooks I came to CCS in January to be the new “Marine Debris & Plastics Research and Outreach Assistant” for Laura and her program. My position was funded by multiple grants and would end in December. Well, somehow the year has flown by and it is now...
A Love of Eating Breakfast Out Inspires “Early Bird” Beach Clean Ups
By Kathryn Brooks CCS Marine Debris Program Assistant Perseverance and determination. If at first you don’t succeed, take a look at what you did, get feedback from others, and make adjustments. My first week of the “Early Bird” cleanups was unsuccessful. I was at...