As an important part of marine litter at the seafloor "Abandoned, lost, discarded or otherwise lost fishing gear" (ALDFG) is gaining increasing attention in environmental assessments. Within this study marine litter at the seafloor of the Baltic Sea was quantified and characterized with special regard to fishery as source. Litter items (LI) were collected within fishery catches by bottom trawling during three cruises in 2020 and 2021. The resulting mean litter abundance was 9.2 LI/km. Approximately 56 % of all LI were plastic, with PE as the most frequently identified polymer. ALDFG was present in considerable amounts with a mean value of 2.2 LI/km (22.2 %). However, the absolute counts of fishery nets were low (0.4 LI/km; 4.2 %). Regarding weight, fishery nets are the dominant part of litter at the Baltic seafloor. Threshold values for marine litter at the seafloor are missing and might be developed using quantitative data on ALDFG.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115348 | DOI Listing |
Mar Pollut Bull
January 2025
ISPRA Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Roma, Italy.
The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008/56/EC) requires Member States to establish monitoring programs for Descriptor 10-Marine Litter, to track progress towards achieving a marine Good Environmental Status (GES). Italy conducted systematic monitoring of Floating Marine Macro Litter (FMML) in three Marine Reporting Units: Western, Central Mediterranean, and Adriatic (2018-2022, 534 surveys, 2719 km across all seasons). This study assessed baseline values for FMML amount and composition, giving indication for tracking GES progress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMar Environ Res
December 2024
Instituto de Investigação em Ciências do Mar - OKEANOS, Universidade dos Açores, HORTA, 9900-138, Portugal.
Plastic ingestion has been extensively studied in seabirds. However, knowledge gaps remain in understanding how plastic loads behave over time and their residence inside Procellariforms. This study investigated the temporal dynamics of ingested plastics by adult Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris borealis) during the breeding season to shed light on plastic retention times.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Total Environ
January 2025
School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India; Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
Coastal ecosystems are increasingly threatened by the accumulation of marine litter globally. Limited data availability along India's eastern coast hinders targeted mitigation efforts. This study assesses coastal litter along Visakhapatnam, a smart city on India's eastern coast, using the NOAA shoreline debris protocol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Monit Assess
January 2025
Waste and Resource Management, Rostock University, Justus-Von-Liebig-Weg 6, 18059, Rostock, Germany.
We conducted surveys of Mediterranean beaches in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia including 37 macro-litter (> 25 mm) and 41 meso-litter (5-25 mm) assessments. Our study identified key litter items and assessed pollution sources on urban, semi-urban, tourist, and semi-rural beaches. Macro-litter concentration averaged 5032 ± 4919 pieces per 100 m or 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Sci Pollut Res Int
January 2025
Institute for Circular Economy Development, Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, 71300, Vietnam.
The health of humans, the economy, and the marine ecology are all seriously threatened by marine litter. Therefore, quantifying the scope of the issue is gaining more and more attention. Studying beach litter accumulation is one of the approaches to investigating its flows into the marine environment.
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