By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

An environmental group has completed beach cleanup and marine debris removal from 70 miles of shoreline on central Prince William Sound islands and Gore Point on the Alaska Peninsula.

Chris Pallister, co-director of the Gulf of Alaska Keeper, said the effort was aided by a $115,000 grant from NOAA's Marine Debris Program. The entire effort cost about $200,000 for the Gore Point area and close to $100,000 for Prince William Sound, he said.

The additional cost came from a group of sponsors that included BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc., the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation, REI, Princess Tours and the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

Some 85 tons of plastic was removed from the Gore Point area alone, most of it the result of oceanic drift from countries in the Pacific Rim, Pallister said.

Last year the organization cleaned 110 miles of beach along Prince William Sound, including the Naked Island complex and a total of 13 islands in the north central sound, he said. It's primarily commercial fishing debris, buoys, floats, nets, but also microwaves and television sets.

The organization has applied for more grant money from the Marine Conservation Alliance Foundation and NOAA to continue its efforts.

“Our plan this (coming) summer is another three-day volunteer cleanup in the Green Island area in the south central sound,” he said. After that, the group will go back to Gore Point to clean up the remainder of the parklands coastline in Kachemak Bay State Wilderness Park.

Nuniwarmiut Piciryarata Tamaryalkuti, a nonprofit organization from Mekoryuk that works to protect cultural resources of the Cup'ig Eskimo people, has received $55,000 to remove debris on Nunivak Island, west of Bethel in the Bering Sea.

Both areas are littered with plastic foam debris, broken into small fragments and difficult to remove. Volunteers will use gas-powered vacuums to remove the debris, NOAA officials said.

Howard Amos, executive director of Nuniwarmiut Piciryarata Tamaryalkuti, said his organization had also received $16,000 from the Coastal Villages Region Fund, an area community development fisheries quota organization to help with the employment of high school students in the cleanup project.

His organization will concentrate on beaches, major stream mouths and marine estuaries near traditional summer fish camps around the island.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.