CONSERVATION: New app that tracks trash on beaches from Georgia to North Carolina

by Ramey Shirah

Beachcombers, residents, and volunteer groups can now use a smartphone application to help track litter on the beaches during clean-ups.  The Georgia Sea Turtle Center (http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/) has implemented a new program, called the Marine Debris Initiative, to get a better idea of where litter is a problem on Jekyll Island beaches.  The Marine Debris Initiative is part of a larger program that runs from Georgia to North Carolina, called the Southeast Atlantic Marine Debris Initiative, funded by NOAA.

To download the trash-tracker app:

http://www.marinedebris.engr.uga.edu/how-do-i-start-tracking

To view beach litter data along the Atlantic Coast:

http://www.marinedebris.engr.uga.edu/data

“However fragmented the world, however intense the national rivalries, it is an inexorable fact that we become more interdependent every day. I believe that national sovereignties will shrink in the face of universal interdependence. The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: We are all in the same boat.”

-Jacques Cousteau

We welcome Ramey Shirah as the newest contributor to The Southern C.  Ramey has an exquisite eye for photography and a big heart for conservation and nature and combines both on her blog and twitter feed:  www.goldenislesinsider.com and @goldenislesGA.