Nancy Wallace

"Plastic Oceans"

ABSTRACT -- Our oceans are filled with items that do not belong there. Huge amounts of consumer plastics, metals, rubber, paper, textiles, derelict fishing gear, vessels, and other lost or discarded items enter the marine environment every day, making marine debris one of the most widespread pollution problems facing the world's ocean and waterways. It is a global problem, and it is an everyday problem. Marine debris is a threat to our environment, navigation safety, the economy, and potentially human safety and health. Nancy Wallace, Director of NOAA’s Marine Debris Program will share the latest research on the impacts of marine debris, technologies to help track and remove marine debris, and how we all can be part of the solution to reduce the amount of marine debris generated every day.

SPEAKER -- Nancy Wallace is the Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program. The Marine Debris Program is the federal lead for researching, preventing, and reducing the impacts of marine debris in the United States. Nancy is the Chair of the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee, the former Chair of the United Nations Global Partnership on Marine Litter and the Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Marine Debris Working Group. Nancy has worked on ocean policy related issues for close to 20 years. Her work includes resource conservation with the National Park Service, developing sustainable catch limits for fisheries off the east coast of the United States and efforts to improve water quality in the Gulf of Mexico.

Next Week: "The Hubble Space Telescope at 30", Jennifer Wiseman (NASA-GSFC), Morgan van Arsdall (Lockheed Martin)

Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov