A new report, “Marine debris on the shoreline of Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary,” was just released which identifies prevalent types of marine debris on the sanctuary shoreline and their distribution.

The report analyzed data sets collected by five citizen science programs along the entire 276 miles of sanctuary shoreline over a five-year period from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2021, providing a total of 4,725 survey points collected by more than 37,000 volunteers.

CMSF and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary's (CINMS) large whale aerial survey program continues to carry out monthly surveys in the Santa Barbara Channel in 2023. Over the course of 5 aerial survey flights in 2023, 108 large whales were sighted and recorded - including over 60 humpback whales, 34 gray whales, and 1 blue whale.

The greater Monterey Bay region’s waters and food webs are contaminated by ubiquitous microplastics (MPs) and macro-plastics that break apart into MPs. This intern will sample and analyze water from the four major rivers that enter the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Monitoring will include collecting water samples for microplastic analysis as well as collecting, documenting, and analyzing macro-plastic samples. Microplastics will be analyzed by the intern and members of the project team. Macro-plastics will be categorized by product and use, to assess whether the origin is agricultural, industrial or urban. 

As you travel along the Central Coast of California, you will pass farms with seemingly endless rows of strawberries, showing only a glimpse of the full production scale. Over 40,000 acres of CA soil is dedicated to growing strawberries, it may be hard to imagine, but those 40,000 acres are covered in plastic mulch used to shield strawberry beds.