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- Mira Veiga, Joana, et al.
(författare)
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Identifying Sources of Marine Litter
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Marine litter is a global problem causing harm to marine wildlife, coastal communities and maritime activities. It also embodies an emerging concern for human health and safety. The reduction of marine litter pollution poses a complex challenge for humankind, requiring adjustments in human behaviour as well as in the different phases of the life- cycle of products and across multiple economic sectors. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires European Member States to monitor marine litter and implement programmes of measures to reduce its occurrence. A crucial step in monitoring and effectively addressing marine litter is the identification of the origin and the pathways that lead to litter entering the marine environment. A given site or region can be subject to litter pollution from a number of sources, which can be local, regional or even distant, as litter can be transported to a specific area by ocean currents and wind drift. For this reason, pinpointing the origin of the different items that make up marine litter is a difficult task and will always have an inherent degree of associated uncertainty. Plastic food packaging recorded in the marine environment, for example, can consist of a diverse selection of items, which can be generated from a number of sources, which in turn can be sea-based or land-based and originate from near or distant regions. A wide variety of methods have been used over the years to determine the sources of marine litter, from simple counts of items believed to originate from a given source to more complex statistical methods. This report provides a brief overview of the main methods used and outlines one of the most promising approaches for determining sources – a Matrix Score Technique based on likelihoods, which considers the possibility that specific items originate from more than one source. Furthermore, it presents a series of other parameters that can be used to analyse data-sets, with regard to the use, origin and risk of items recorded in the marine or coastal environments. These can further support decision-making when considering preventive measures. Finally, recommendations to help the process of identification of sources are given, from the early stage of data collection and site characterization to bringing in the knowledge of local stakeholders to better determine where litter is coming from and what needs to be done to prevent it.
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| 2. |
- Werner, Stefanie, et al.
(författare)
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Harm caused by Marine Litter
- 2016
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Marine litter is a global concern with a range of problems associated to it, as recognised by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Marine litter can impact organisms at different levels of biological organization and habitats in a number of ways namely: through entanglement in, or ingestion of, litter items by individuals, resulting in death and/or severe suffering; through chemical and microbial transfer; as a vector for transport of biota and by altering or modifying assemblages of species. Marine litter is a threat not only to marine species and ecosystems but also carries a risk to human health and has significant implications to human welfare, impacting negatively vital economic sectors such as tourism, fisheries, aquaculture or energy supply and bringing economic losses to individuals, enterprises and communities. This technical report aims to provide clear insight about the major negative impacts from marine litter by describing the mechanisms of harm. Further it provides reflexions about the evidence for harm from marine litter to biota comprising the underlying aspect of animal welfare while also considering the socioeconomic effects, including the influence of marine litter on ecosystem services. General conclusions highlight that understanding the risks and uncertainties with regard to the harm caused by marine litter is closely associated with the precautionary principle. The collected evidence in this report can be regarded as a supporting step to define harm and to provide an evidence base for the various actions needed to be implemented by decision-makers. This improved knowledge about the scale of the harmful effects of marine litter will further support EU Member States (MSs) and Regional Seas Conventions (RSCs) to implement their programme of measures, regional action plans and assessments.
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