Abstract

The monitoring of litter and debris is challenging at the global scale because of spatial and temporal variability, discon-nected local organizations and the use of paper and pen for documentation. The Marine Debris Tracker (MDT) mobile app and citizen science program allows for the collection of global standardized data at a scale, speed and efficiency that was not previously possible. Additionally, the app itself serves as an outreach and education tool, creating an engaged participa-tory sensing instrument. This instrument is characterized by several aspects including range and frequency, accuracy and precision, accessibility, measurement dimensions, participant performance, and statistical analysis. Also, important to MDT is open data and transparency. A web portal provides data that users have logged allowing immediate feedback to users and additional education opportunities. The engagement of users through a top tracker competition and social media keeps par-ticipants interested in the MDT community. Over a million items have been tracked globally, and maps provide both global and local distribution of data. We will present current usage and engagement, participatory sensing data distributions, choro-pleth maps of areas of active tracking, and statistical analysis. Preliminary statistical analysis indicates differences in NOAA region debris characterization. The Northeast, Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Pacific Island, and Gulf of Mexico NOAA regions have significantly more fishing gear than in other tracked NOAA regions. An average of 20% of the total debris was fishing gear in these regions, whereas, approximately less than 2% was fishing gear in the remaining regions.

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