First assessment of microplastics in offshore sediments along the Lebanese coast, South-Eastern Mediterranean.

Few studies on microplastics (MPs) in the marine environment have been conducted along the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and even fewer along the Lebanese coast. This study aims to determine MPs contamination for the first-time in coastal and continental shelf sediments collected along the Lebanese shores, South-Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Sediments were collected as transects in 10 sites with a total of 23 samples between 2 and 120 m depth and suspected MPs were assessed by moving farther from land-based sources.