Seabird Institute staff and volunteers gather bags of marine debris to be removed from Eastern Egg Rock using small boats. Stacey Keefer photos

The Maine Marine Trades Association has partnered with Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Maine Island Trail Association and Friends of Casco Bay to bring awareness to boaters about keeping Maine waters free of debris.

MMTA Director Stacey Keefer is a paddler and sailor and often cleans up marine debris and trash in her travels. Her efforts helped inspire the new awareness and educational campaign about marine debris with respect to boaters. At MMTA, Keefer helps represent the boating industry in Maine and advocates for boat builders, dealers, marinas, boatyards and related businesses. The association’s member businesses serve both recreational and commercial customers. After the increase in recreational boating since the pandemic, MMTA partnered with several other organizations to promote more informed, responsible and respectful boating, and put together a website with information for boaters (lovemainewaters.org) and messaging using the social hashtag #LoveMaineWaters.

A vintage Farrah Fawcett plastic shampoo bottle found washed ashore on Eastern Egg Rock with other marine debris and trash in April.

“MCFA loves the #LoveMaineWaters campaign because it effectively conveys that marine debris is an issue we all contribute to but also one we can all help clean up,” Monique Coombs, director of community programs with the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said in a prepared release.

The coalition has now extended its educational outreach thanks to a collaboration with Maine Sea Grant with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.

“This project is a great opportunity to send the message that we’re all in this together, we all contribute to marine debris and we all have a role to play as far as preventing marine debris in our shared waterways,” said Keri Kaczor, Environmental Literacy and Workforce Development Program manager for Maine Sea Grant.

In addition to keeping debris out of the ocean, the coalition considered and discussed the need for better public information about responsible navigation around lobster gear and sea farms. Any vessel traveling with line cutters on their prop shaft has the potential to run over a buoy and accidentally cut a line attached to a trap or other gear. Sailboats also run a risk of snagging lobster gear lines in their rudders, keels, or props. There are various ways that lobster traps can end up as derelict fishing gear (aka “ghost gear”).

“Fishing gear is incredibly expensive, and losing it due to unforeseen circumstances can significantly impact a fisherman’s day or even their entire season,” Coombs said.

Marine debris has further possible economic impacts beyond fishermen losing their gear. Debris of all types can wash ashore in rural communities where the municipal resources are limited for their own trash removal, let alone what is deposited there unexpectedly by the sea. In addition, Many Maine islands are uninhabited or sparsely populated, thus hundreds of miles of coastline have no official stewards for debris removal.

A pile of marine debris collected by Seabird Institute staff and volunteers during a cleanup of Eastern Egg Rock in April.

In 2023, volunteers with the nonprofit Maine Island Trail Association removed 2,600 bags of trash from Maine’s island shorelines, including over 1,300 derelict traps weighing over 12 tons.

“The islands tend to catch and hold any marine debris that drifts by,” said MITA Program Director Brian Marcaurelle. “Keeping shorelines clean is an endless task. It is the largest component of our stewardship work and budget.”

Marine debris can have detrimental impacts on wildlife. Marine creatures of all types and sizes can be impacted by consuming debris that mistakenly looks like a food source or from exposure to ingested microplastic debris over time. The Seabird Institute tries to keep seven protected nesting islands in the Gulf of Maine as clean as possible, but “Islands only stay cleaned up for a couple minutes, it seems,” according to Sue Schubel, the outreach educator for Audubon’s Seabird Institute. In recent years, the institute was able to secure a NOAA marine debris grant to clean up 13 tons of debris off Stratton Island in Casco Bay, filling several 40-yard dumpsters.

Keefer knows that her volunteer time cleaning up marine debris is not the answer — education and prevention are key.

“We know marine debris is not just from recreational boaters and not just from fishing sources,” she said. “But we can all do our part to try to be cleaner by securing loose items, navigating carefully and being respectful of all water users — human and nonhuman. This awareness campaign is a way to bring attention to a challenging but important topic for all those who love Maine waters.”

The coalition’s grant project has also received support from the Maine Coastal Program, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and the Maine Harbormasters Association. This summer, MMTA will be working on distributing educational signage to boatyards, marinas and public boating access points. For more information on the campaign and to learn tips on how to navigate around lobster buoys, go to lovemainewaters.org. To acquire signage or posters regarding boater marine debris prevention, reach out to the Maine Marine Trades Association at info@mainemarinetrades.com.