California residents and tourists love our coast and ocean, making more than 150 million visits to California beaches each year. The effort to keep our shorelines clear of marine debris comes at a significant cost. A 2012 study determined that 90 west coast communities spend a total of more than $520,000,000 each year to combat litter.
In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences estimated that ocean-based sources, such as cargo ships and cruise liners, dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean. In 1988, the U.S. signed onto MARPOL Annex V, joining 64 other countries that signed the international protocol that regulates ocean dumping and made it illegal to dump plastic into the ocean. Even so, plastic pollution is still a major problem. A 2001 study found an average of 334,271 pieces of plastic per square mile in the North Pacific Central Gyre, which serves as a natural eddy system to concentrate material. A 2009 voyage to that same region found plastic particles in over 100 consecutive surface tows over approximately 8 days of sampling. And debris in the marine environment means hazards for animals and humans. Marine debris affects at least 663 species worldwide, including all known sea turtle species and about half of all of marine mammal species. More than 80% of these impacts were associated with plastic debris.