Large-scale marine debris: 4 ways to clean up the big stuff
How do you address oversized pollution in the ocean and Great Lakes?
A freediver from the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project works to carefully remove a ghost net from the reef at Kamokuokamohoali‘i (Maro Reef) in Hawaii. (Image credit: Andrew Sullivan-Hawkins/Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (Under permit # PMNM-2024-003))
October 7, 2026
Marine debris is a challenging problem.
Across the country, NOAA and partners remove everything from lost fishing gear tangled on the seafloor to sunken vessels, abandoned tire reefs, and other trash that have become hazards to navigation and marine ecosystems in the ocean and Great Lakes.
Beginning in 2013, NOAA and its partners began to take on the removal of larger-scale marine debris that is beyond what is considered typical — this includes the removal of abandoned vessels, barges, piers, and other debris that can remain in the environment for decades. Doing so improves vessel navigation, supports the fishing and tourism economy, helps communities recover from disasters, and prioritizes productive and safe shorelines and waterways across the United States.
To date, more than 50 million pounds of large-scale marine debris has been taken out of marine environments.
But clearing large-scale and bulky debris can present big challenges depending on where it is located and what it is made of.
Let’s peek into 4 techniques that NOAA and our partners use to keep our marine environments free of debris:
1. Gear recovery from seafloor to sea surface
Divers carefully cut fishing gear free from other gear or natural structures before attaching flotation devices, known as lift bags, to float the debris to the surface during removal operations in the Florida Keys in 2020. Lost and abandoned fishing gear, often called ghost gear, can continue trapping marine life long after it enters the environment. Nets, traps, and lines frequently become tangled on reefs, kelp, rocks, and the seafloor, making them difficult to retrieve. In deeper waters, remotely operated vehicles can help crews locate and recover gear that would otherwise remain out of reach.(Image credit: Sean Davis/National Marine Sanctuary Foundation)
2. Heavy machinery for heavy lifting
A partially sunken bridge is lifted by a crane in Neah Bay, Washington. Formerly a floating bridge, this structure was previously part of the Interstate 90 near Seattle and brought to the Makah Tribal Marina for a construction project. Sunken barges, abandoned vessels, derelict piers, and aging marine infrastructure can be major navigation hazards; can weigh hundreds of tons and degrade significantly in the water; and may contain pollutants, such as fuel, paint, and heavy metals. Removal of this heavy debris often requires cranes, salvage vessels, engineers and months of planning to safely remove from the water.(Image credit: Howard Shack, Toolbox Pictures/National Marine Sanctuary Foundation)
3. A hands-on approach for high-impact debris removal
A free diver (left image) with the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project removes a large amount of netting from the seafloor in Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary in the fall of 2023. Commercial fishers, divers, and community partners often retrieve fishing gear including traps, netting, and line, and other debris by hand in places where larger vessels cannot operate. The diving team’s approach to removal depends on the type of abandoned net that is found. Large nets are often cut into smaller sections. Free divers will sometimes attach a line to the net to rig it to a pulley system and bring it aboard the small boat. A net mass, a clump of many nets tangled together, typically weighs 1,000 pounds and takes four marine debris technicians an hour and a half to remove. A lobster fisher (right image) loads a retrieved trap onto his surfboard to paddle back to the boats waiting offshore of Santa Rosa Island in California’s Channel Islands in September 2025. Lobster fishers and volunteers have used skiffs and surfboards to help recover abandoned traps from remote, rocky shorelines and nearshore waters.(Image credit: Andrew Sullivan-Hawkins/Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (left); NOAA Marine Debris Program (right)
Alaska, July 2025: Large durable bags filled with retrieved marine debris called “super sacks” (left) are secured to a line and lifted off the ground by a helicopter that will transport them to a barge offshore. A helicopter (right) deposits bagged marine debris to a barge offshore in remote shorelines in Alaska. Gulf of Alaska Keeper pioneered this technique in Alaska using helicopters to avoid dangerous transit in high surf. Cleanup crews collect and bag the debris, and then they place the sacks in designated collection points for helicopter pickup. (Image credit: Courtesy of Ocean Plastic Recovery Project (left image); Courtesy of Gulf of Alaska Keeper (right image)))
Dive deeper
Since 2006, NOAA’s Marine Debris Program has served as the U.S. government’s lead to reduce and prevent the adverse impacts of marine debris on our ocean and Great Lakes.
