The head of a marine cleanup organization says she and her team will work with or without pay to keep Nova Scotian waters free of trash — but the lack of funding feels like a gut punch.

Nova Scotia is discontinuing the Marine Debris Clean-up Program next fiscal year. The fund supports groups removing water debris and promotes recycling and litter reduction in waterways. The federal government also discontinued its Ghost Gear Funding, which between 2020 and 2025 gave out $58.4 million to different groups keeping shorelines clean. 

Angela Riley, founder of Scotian Shores, said without funding, she won’t be able to keep paying people, so they will have to look for other jobs to pay their bills, which will cut the time they have to work on administrative tasks that keep this project going. 

“If you don’t have somebody committed to that full-time, then we won’t be able to really do anything because you can’t clean a lot of beaches without proper permitting,” she said. 

Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear is a known issue in Nova Scotia. While it is hard to estimate how much “ghost gear” there is in provincial waters, thousands of lobster traps, bands and ropes are removed annually from Nova Scotia.

“It seems pretty irresponsible, I guess, especially when we’re seeing as much garbage as we do,” she said about ending the funds.

“It seems pretty irresponsible, I guess, especially when we’re seeing as much garbage as we do,” she said about ending the funds.

Since its launch in 2020, the Nova Scotia Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture’s Marine Debris Clean-Up Fund has provided a total of $95,900 to eight marine stewardship groups and industry partners.

“This was not a decision we took lightly. Like all departments, we must manage expenses carefully and do our part to address the provincial deficit,” read the statement from the province.

The federal Department of Fisheries said in a statement that “mandatory lost gear reporting” continues to be a condition for commercial fish harvester licences.

The department said a ghost gear action plan is being developed to “provide a framework on how to tackle ghost gear in Canada.”

Riley said “every bit counts” when it comes to funding. When Hurricane Fiona hit the province, the federal government gave her organization $150,000, which it used to get new equipment and vehicles.

She said her organization received around $2,000 from the province per cleanup “as long as you’re working with the fishing industry.”

“This was just that little seed of hope that the Nova Scotia government really does support this clean up initiative. And now it’s gone,” said Riley. 

Aside from volunteers, there are 15 team leaders in Riley’s organization that do cleanups around the province.

Kelly Mackarous, coastal & marine program manager at Coastal Action, said in a statement that her team had been involved with the Marine Debris Cleanup Program for the last two years, and that it is very disappointed with the decision to cut yet another fund.

“We had been hopeful that this program would continue to grow into supporting more long-term initiatives to help with program stability and longevity, and we were disappointed with the funding cuts,” she said.

The organization also received funding from the federal government between 2020 and 2024, and without it, it went from doing 100 retrieval days at-sea and shoreline, to 15 to 20 shoreline-only cleanups. 

In a letter to Riley, minister Kent Smith said these cuts will not affect the funding application that Scotian Shores was preparing, due on March 31.

Riley said that could be the last bit of money it will receive from this specific fund before it goes under in the next fiscal year. 

She said her organization constantly seeks sponsors and partners to cover costs, especially now due to the recent cuts.

Scotian Shores also has a social entrepreneurship side to it and generates some income by selling art made with the trash they collect.

“I try to stay positive and we are lucky in Scotia Shores where we have a lot of volunteers and our operating costs are a lot lower than other groups that are out there,” she said. “But it’s not fair to expect everybody to do it for free. This is hard work.”

MORE STORIES