Trawl to Trash: How Shrimpers Can Make Money Offseason
Georgia Sea Grant and South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium, with support from the National Sea Grant College Program, are recruiting commercial shrimpers to sew bags made of recycled shrimp nets that can be used to collect marine debris.
The accumulation of man-made marine debris affects marine organisms and threatens human health, safety and the economy.
Georgia Sea Grant’s Trawl to Trash program allows shrimpers to receive additional income during the offseason while building local awareness and support for marine debris cleanup efforts.
The bags are distributed to the public through educational programs and community science efforts. Volunteers then remove marine debris from barrier islands and salt marshes along the Georgia coast while tracking what they collect using the Marine Debris Tracker App.