page_title: Marine conservation activism
section_title: Debris
hierarchical_section_title: Marine conservation activism / International issues / Debris
caption_attribution_description: Marine debris on a Hawaii beach.
context_page_description: Marine conservation activism is the efforts of non-governmental organizations and individuals to bring about social and political change in the area of marine conservation. Marine conservation is properly conceived as a set of management strategies for the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas. Activists raise public awareness and support for conservation, while pushing governments and corporations to practice sound ocean management, create conservation policy, and enforce existing laws and policy through effective regulation. There are many different kinds of organizations and agencies that work toward these common goals. They all are a part of the growing movement that is ocean conservation. These organizations fight for many causes including stopping pollution, overfishing, whaling and by-catching, and supporting marine protected areas.
context_section_description: Marine debris is defined as “any persistent solid material that is manufactured or processed and directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, disposed of or abandoned into the marine environment or the Great Lakes”. This debris can injure or even kill marine organisms; it can also interfere with navigation safety and could pose a threat to human health. Marine debris can range from soda cans to plastic bags and can even include abandoned vessels or neglected fishing gear.
  Ocean Conservancy is a non-profit environmental group that fights for the improvement and conservation of marine ecosystems and marine life. They work to find science-based solutions to protect the world's oceans from the global challenges that they face today. One of the many issues that they work closely to stop is the flow of trash that enters the ocean. The International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is one of the methods Ocean Conservancy uses to prevent marine debris. The ICC is the largest volunteer effort to clean up the world's oceans and other waterways; over the past 25 years the ICC has cleaned up approximately 144,606,491 pounds of trash from beaches all over the world.
caption: Marine debris on the Hawaiian coast
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