Marine Debris Program Education Specialist, Alexandria Gillen, participated throughout the day at a marine debris “Conversation Station” focused on turning marine debris into art and preventing debris into the future. More than 200 attendees stopped by the station for meaningful conversations about the issue, inspired by a miniature Washed Ashore sculpture made with repurposed debris items. NOAA also debuted a new Science on a Sphere dataset and two new videos focused on marine debris. The videos highlight debris movement throughout the ocean, as well as opportunities to help address the problem. Following their debut on World Ocean Day, the videos will now be available online and at the nearly 200 Science on a Sphere sites worldwide.

The first step to solving a problem is learning more about it, and the NOAA Marine Debris Program is dedicated to educating the public about this critical issue.