Analysis by Chloe Bai
As a Florida Community Innovation (FCI) student fellow, I have been supported to explore my longstanding interest in ocean health and data analysis. The work presented here analyzes citizen-collected data from the Marine Debris Tracker (MDT) project, with a focus on Florida’s coasts.
Using insights from this data, I explore patterns and trends in marine debris and use them as a basis to suggest solutions that support a healthier ocean, not only for marine ecosystems, but also for the communities that depend on them.
About Marine Debris Tracker
Collecting and managing marine debris data can be very difficult due to the sheer volume of it. Marine Debris Tracker was originally developed by the University of Georgia and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in order to make this process more efficient, more accessible, and easier.
MDT is an open data project where citizen scientists (members of the public who want to do environmental research) can upload the trash they collect along with its important metadata, such as coordinates, date, time, or material, to their mobile app and data platform.
The project empowers anyone, not just researchers or scientists, to contribute to building crucial global datasets. These datasets can be used to identify trends in marine debris to craft solutions for one of our world’s greatest pollution challenges.
People can pariticpate in Marine Debris Tracker from anywhere in the world, and for this project, I analyzed data that has been submitted in Florida.
Why this Project? Why FCI?
Marine debris has been a longstanding and ever-increasing environmental problem. Waste materials enter oceans for a variety of reasons, most notably human coastal activity. Once in the marine environment, the debris can harm wildlife, damage habitats, and break down into microscopic pieces of trash that persist in oceans for decades.
This is extremely relevant when Florida’s economy is heavily propped up by the very oceans we are harming. Tourism, recreation, and fisheries are just some of the industries that the coastal ecosystem supports. Pollution doesn’t just affect wildlife, it affects us.
Florida Community Innovation (FCI) is a civic technology nonprofit that partners with local organizations to enact positive change within Florida communities. FCI has provided me an opportunity to analyze data in order to advocate for change to better protect our oceans that provide for us.
Dataset Background
The dataset from Marine Debris Tracker that I used includes over 14,000 logged observations of marine debris, corresponding to approximately 30,000 individual pieces of marine debris from Florida coastlines and shores in 2025. The relevant metadata attached to each entry that I used to observe patterns include item, material, quantity recorded, latitude, longitude, datetime, and location.
To prepare the dataset for analysis and visualization, I wrote cleaning and transformation scripts in Python to remove less important information like log IDs and usernames and to normalize categorical data to remove spelling, capitalization, or other like discrepancies. Additionally, I used provided upload information to deduce other important categories like weekday and time of day.
Analysis & Visualizations
After sorting and grouping the dataset, I observed the following patterns.
In terms of the material of debris and the item type, the most common type of marine debris was overwhelmingly plastic.
Most citizen scientists logged data on Sundays, and the time of day with the most marine debris logged was the afternoon. Sunday afternoons alone accounted for approximately a quarter of all weekly logged trash.
The season with the most marine debris logged was summer. In all seasons besides spring, the time of day with the most marine debris logged were the afternoon hours.
The months that experienced the highest recorded often align with the number of volunteers. However, during March and April there is a large spike in trash quantity and a large decline in the number of volunteers.
Finally, in Florida, Miami had the highest recorded quantity of marine debris, as well as the highest number of volunteers.
Deductions & Recommendations for a Healthier Ocean
Based on the patterns I observed throughout the dataset, there are several correlations that suggest opportunities to reduce marine debris volume along Florida coastlines.
The dataset shows that plastic is the most significant makeup of marine debris by far. Single use plastics like wrappers, disposable water bottles, and straws entering the ocean can be mitigated through policies that reduce plastic use. Potential approaches to this could be to restrict single-use plastic within beaches or other coastal areas, implementing stronger repercussions for littering, or incentivizing local businesses to make the switch to biodegradable alternatives.
Sunday afternoons notice the most marine debris accumulation, which is likely indicative of volunteers’ free time to collect and log debris. However, in order to consistently ensure clean Florida coastlines, volunteer programs can be strategically organized for cleanups during the weekdays, when there is significantly less recorded debris. If funding permits, municipalities can also consider hiring part-time cleanup staff specifically for weekdays.
There is a noticeable spike in recorded debris during March and April, even though there were less volunteers during these months. This suggests that there was an actual increase in trash volume that is not due to sample bias, and instead may correspond to the months of spring break for students, when coastal tourism and beach visits significantly increase.
In addition, Miami is the most population dense city in all of Florida. It also relates to the previous spring break correlation, as Miami is the most popular city for tourism that lies on the coast. To combat this additional accumulation from tourism, municipalities can implement public awareness campaigns during these seasons, encouraging visitors to be responsible with waste and to avoid littering.
These findings suggest that a combination of policy intervention, more consistent cleaning, and service announcements could significantly improve marine debris numbers.
Closing Call to Action for the Reader
While marine debris isn’t a problem that will disappear anytime soon, these patterns show that even small, targeted action can make a meaningful difference. From organizing more frequent and consistent cleanup events to reducing disposable plastics near coastal areas, communities have the ability to actively protect the waters they depend on.
If you are located in Florida, there are many ways for you to support marine health. Consider making the switch to biodegradable or reusable materials over disposable plastic, volunteer at coastal cleanups, and urge those around you and your local municipalities to prioritize our oceans and implement solutions like the ones detailed above. Plus, as a citizen scientist, you can always participate in Marine Debris Tracker.
Even though you might not be a researcher or scientist, by taking small steps toward conservation, you can become part of a larger effort to address environmental issues. Projects like the Marine Debris Tracker highlight how individuals, through informal data collection, can also become a part of this cause.
By continuing to collect data, raise awareness, and support responsible waste practices, communities can play an important role in creating cleaner and healthier oceans for future generations.
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