It may have been the post-conference stupor I’ve been in for the last week or so, but today I found myself chatting with Fred the Monkey. For those of you who’ve never met or heard of Fred, he is a fabulous and furry stuffed monkey who is traveling the globe to help spread the word about marine debris. Fred travels fairly lightly, taking with him an envelope full of informative and educational material on marine debris as well as a journal full of interesting and inspiring stories of his travels. He was lovingly passed along to me by my good friend Sue Kinsey (Marine Conservation Society-UK). So today, as I taped photos into his journal of our adventures, I did indeed find myself chatting with Fred—mostly about my jealousy of all of the places he’s been! He’ll surely be missed here, but I have a feeling he’ll be back to the great state of Hawaii. Until then, he’s off to my friends and colleagues in Seattle and across the rest of the U.S. in the loving hands of NOAA Marine Debris Division staff.
SEA-MDI has initially launched a Mobile Application, Marine Debris Tracker. The app is available on the Android Market online here. Or simply search for “marine debris” in the Market from your phone and download it directly to your phone.
For an explanation on how to use the app, go to the Marine Debris Tracker website here.
Briefly, the Marine Debris Tracker mobile application allows you to help make a difference by checking in when you find trash on our coastlines and waterways. You can easily track and log marine debris items from a list of common debris items found on the beach or in the water. The app records the debris location through GPS, and you can view the data on your phone and submit to the Marine Debris Tracker Website for viewing and download later (requires registration, which you can do from the app). Your username is shown on the website for only the most recent 5 items tracked, but GPS coordinates are not shown. All downloadable and mapped data with GPS coordinates is shown anonymously to the public. More information available on the website under “How Do I Start Tracking?” Marine Debris Tracker is a joint effort of the NOAA Marine Debris Division and the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative (SEA-MDI) out of the University of Georgia Faculty of Engineering.
One of the developers, Jenna Jambeck, Faculty of Engineering, University of Georgia, said, “Marine debris has been, and continues to be, a persistent and pervasive pollution source. Marine Debris Trackerallows for really fast and efficient data collection, which is critical to designing plans to prevent marine debris. Another part of the solution is to get people to even notice (and then pick up) debris. This app is one way we are trying to reach people to have them take notice and then help mitigate the issue… and if you are noticing trash, you are also much less likely to litter (although debris comes from other sources too). While this app collects data (which people can use in various ways to assess the issue), one of the primary goals is to get the app out to educate as much of the public, in a culturally relevant way, about marine debris and its harmful impacts.”
Check out this cool new app or the other great work SEA-MDI is doing on marine debris with support from the NOAA Marine Debris Program!
Do you have an original video all about marine debris?
Been dreaming of an opportunity to show it off to folks??
We have just the thing for you!
The 5th International Marine Debris Conference’s (5IMDC) Movie Night is an opportunity to highlight your marine debris-related film to participants of the conference. This call for videos is open to everyone and anyone with a good & interesting film on marine debris (legth is limited to 10 minutes).
Applications are being accepted through Friday, 10 December 2010.Click here for more information and to download the application …and help spread the word!!!
If you have questions, please email 5imdconf@gmail.com (with “5IMDC Movie Night” in the subject line).
It may have been the post-conference stupor I’ve been in for the last week or so, but today I found myself chatting with Fred the Monkey. For those of you who’ve never met or heard of Fred, he is a fabulous and furry stuffed monkey who is traveling the globe to help spread the word about marine debris. Fred travels fairly lightly, taking with him an envelope full of informative and educational material on marine debris as well as a journal full of interesting and inspiring stories of his travels. He was lovingly passed along to me by my good friend Sue Kinsey (Marine Conservation Society-UK). So today, as I taped photos into his journal of our adventures, I did indeed find myself chatting with Fred—mostly about my jealousy of all of the places he’s been! 
He’ll surely be missed here, but I have a feeling he’ll be back to the great state of Hawaii. Until then, he’s off to my friends and colleagues in Seattle and across the rest of the U.S. in the loving hands of NOAA Marine Debris Division staff.
