The United States has more than 88,000 miles of tidal shoreline. Approximately 4 percent or about 3,800 miles of this shoreline is maintained by cities and various state and federal park systems as public tourist beaches. The remainder of these coastal areas belong to private land owners and local, state, and federal governments.
None of these other entities have any money in their budgets allocated to clean up after the general public and maintain these 84,000 miles of coastline as a trash-free environment. With no public funding available, trash has been accumulating in many areas for 20-plus years. Along some rural coastlines, there is trash burying trash in what should be pristine areas.
| Lengths, statute miles | ||
|---|---|---|
| State | General coastline1 |
Tidal shoreline2 |
| Atlantic Coast: | ||
| Maine | 228 | 3,478 |
| New Hampshire | 13 | 131 |
| Massachusetts | 192 | 1,519 |
| Rhode Island | 40 | 384 |
| Connecticut | — | 618 |
| New York | 127 | 1,850 |
| New Jersey | 130 | 1,792 |
| Pennsylvania | — | 89 |
| Delaware | 28 | 381 |
| Maryland | 31 | 3,190 |
| Virginia | 112 | 3,315 |
| North Carolina | 301 | 3,375 |
| South Carolina | 187 | 2,876 |
| Georgia | 100 | 2,344 |
| Florida (Atlantic) | 580 | 3,331 |
| Total Atlantic Coast | 2,069 | 28,673 |
| Gulf Coast: | ||
| Florida (Gulf) | 770 | 5,095 |
| Alabama | 53 | 607 |
| Mississippi | 44 | 359 |
| Louisiana | 397 | 7,721 |
| Texas | 367 | 3,359 |
| Total Gulf Coast | 1,631 | 17,141 |
| Pacific Coast: | ||
| California | 840 | 3,427 |
| Oregon | 296 | 1,410 |
| Washington | 157 | 3,026 |
| Hawaii | 750 | 1,052 |
| Alaska (Pacific) | 5,580 | 31,383 |
| Total Pacific Coast | 7,623 | 40,298 |
| Arctic Coast: | ||
| Alaska (Arctic) | 1,060 | 2,521 |
| Total Arctic Coast | 1,060 | 2,521 |
| States Total | 12,383 | 88,633 |
1. Figures are lengths of the general outline of the seacoast. This does not include freshwater coastlines. Measurements are made with unit measures of 30 minutes of latitude on charts as near a scale of 1:1,200,000 as possible. The coastline of bays and sounds is included to the point where they narrow to the width of unit measure, and distance across at such point is included.
Source: Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Service.