Marine Litter Watch Month

Marine litter is building up in Mediterranean coastal and marine protected areas. The ACT4LITTER Marine Litter Watch Month (MLWM) aims to gather essential data about the amount, composition, types and sources of marine litter on beaches by engaging MPA managers and other actors in a participatory-science campaign. The ACT4LITTER MLWM may not only provide fit-for-purpose data for the effective management of marine litter in Mediterranean coastal and marine protected areas, but may also enhance managers’ skills on how to monitor marine litter by using a standardised beach litter monitoring protocol.

Technological infrastructure

A hand-held GPS tracker to record the exact location of the survey sites, and a camera to document the physical characteristics of the monitoring sites.

Training

Capacity building, including hands-on training activities, are essential in order to enhance the target groups’ skills on how to monitor marine litter on beaches in a harmonised way, in accordance with the EU “Guidance on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas”.

Investment

The application of beach litter monitoring is not demanding when it comes to financial and human resources. Assuming that four operators are required for each transect surveillance and about 3-4 hours on average are needed to collect, classify and record the items, about 4-6 man-days per year are needed to monitor one survey site. Assuming that results are reported to the European Environment Agency Marine Litter Watch or the EMODNET platforms, no additional resources are needed to process the results However, the preparation of MPA-specific marine litter assessment reports requires additional resources for gathering, validating, and processing the datasets in order to compile an assessment report.

Concept

Survey sites are selected following the criteria described by the EU “Guidance on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas”. All litter items larger than 2.5 cm are collected, counted, and categorised in accordance with the ‘Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) TG10 Master List of Categories of Litter Items’. The macro-litter density, expressed in number of items per square metre and number
of items per 100-metre stretch, is calculated. The sources of marine litter are determined using the attribution-by-litter type method, which attributes specific items to a certain source, assuming that these are typically used by specific sectors, or are released into the environment via well-defined pathways.

Recommended implementation frequency

The MLWM campaign should be performed in every season, i.e. in winter (mid-December to mid-January), spring (April), summer (mid-June to mid-July), and autumn (mid-September to mid-October) of each year.

MPA managers may have problems initially performing data collection and monitoring activities, due to a lack of experience or expertise. A possible solution to this problem lies in the provision of additional technical support in following the methodology and the standardised protocol provided.

Quantitative results

Reliable, accurate, and comparable fit-for-purpose data that enhance our knowledge of the amounts, types, composition, and sources of marine litter found on beaches in Mediterranean MPAs.

Transfer potential

The MLWM can be quite easily set up and run in diverse settings, enabling the participation of a wide range of actors such as MPA managers, NGOs, local authorities, and the educational community. Not only does it have the potential to engage MPA managers and other actors in gathering essential data on marine litter throughout the Mediterranean, but it can also act as a vehicle for raising awareness on
marine litter and its sources, impacts, and solutions.

• During the winter edition of the MLWM, performed in December 2017-January 2018 in 16 coastal and marine protected areas of Albania, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey, a total of 17,334 marine litter items were recorded, with
  an average litter density of 1,048 items per 100-m stretch and 0.6 items per square metre. More than one-fourth of the 22
  beaches surveyed were characterised by high litter densities ranging from 681 to 12,896 items per 100-m stretch.

• Main types of litter – 82% artificial polymer materials, mainly small plastic and polystyrene pieces (21.9%). On aggregate,
  single-use plastics accounted for about one-fifth (21%) of all the items recorded.

• Litter from shoreline sources, such as tourism and recreational activities and poor waste management practices accounted
  for 26.5% of all litter collected, while the amount of litter from fisheries and aquaculture was in the range of about 10%.