Citizen engagement : a driver for ocean protection

A few times a year, volunteers fan out along the causeway that links the South Carolina mainland with the seashore community of Folly Beach to clean up plastic bottles, straws, bags, and other debris from along the road and the salt marsh. Some of this debris has come from cities miles away. On windy days, litter is often blown off city streets into waterways. During rainstorms, debris floats into drains that empty into rivers. Other trash probably came from places closer to home. “I see bags and other plastic flying off the beds of pickup trucks going down the causeway,” says Marty Morganello, who organizes the cleanups for the Charleston-area chapter of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation. “I see them coming out the open windows of cars and out the backs of garbage trucks and even recycling trucks. This material is lightweight, and if you don’t secure it, it will fly away.” By one estimate, the volume of plastic debris going into the world’s oceans could more than double by 2025, assuming current trends in coastal development and plastics use. Some countries have begun identifying ways to improve management of plastic ... Beach cleanups yield enormous amounts of trash, with plastic items a major constituent.1 Although the human health impacts of this marine plastic pollution remain poorly characterized, it is widely seen as an emerging problem that deserves much more research attention.2 Likewise, there is a growing urgency among industry, government, nongovernmental organizations, and environmental groups to develop tools and policies to track, capture, and recycle plastic waste before it reaches the ocean.

Most plastics are made of persistent synthetic polymer matrices that contain chemical additives in significant amounts. Millions of tonnes of plastics are produced every year and a significant amount of this plastic enters the marine environment, either as macro- or microplastics. In this article, an overview is given of the presence of marine plastic debris globally and its potential to reach remote locations in combination with an analysis of the oceanic long-range transport potential of organic additives present in plastic debris. The information gathered shows that leaching of hydrophobic substances from plastic is slow in the ocean, whereas more polar substances leach faster but mostly from the surface layers of the particle. Their high content used in plastic of several percent by weight allows also these chemicals to be transported over long distances without being completely depleted along the way. It is therefore likely that various types of additives reach remote locations with plastic debris. As a consequence, birds or other wildlife that ingest plastic debris are exposed to these substances, as leaching is accelerated in warm-blooded organisms and in hydrophobic fluids such as stomach oil, compared to leaching in water. Our estimates show that approximately 8100–18,900 t of various organic additives are transported with buoyant plastic matrices globally with a significant portion also transported to the Arctic. For many of these chemicals, long-range transport (LRT) by plastic as a carrier is their only means of travelling over long distances without degrading, resulting in plastic debris enabling the LRT of chemicals which otherwise would not reach polar environments with unknown consequences. The transport of organic additives via plastic debris is an additional long-range transport route that should also be considered under the Stockholm Convention.

Exploring the dynamics of antibiotic resistome on plastic debris traveling from the river to the sea along a representative estuary based on field sequential transfer incubations

Ingestion of marine debris can have lethal and sublethal effects on sea turtles and other wildlife. Although researchers have reported on ingestion of anthropogenic debris by marine turtles and implied incidences of debris ingestion have increased over time, there has not been a global synthesis of the phenomenon since 1985. Thus, we analyzed 37 studies published from 1985 to 2012 that report on data collected from before 1900 through 2011. Specifically, we investigated whether ingestion prevalence has changed over time, what types of debris are most commonly ingested, the geographic distribution of debris ingestion by marine turtles relative to global debris distribution, and which species and life-history stages are most likely to ingest debris. The probability of green (Chelonia mydas) and leatherback turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) ingesting debris increased significantly over time, and plastic was the most commonly ingested debris. Turtles in nearly all regions studied ingest debris, but the probability of ingestion was not related to modeled debris densities. Furthermore, smaller, oceanic-stage turtles were more likely to ingest debris than coastal foragers, whereas carnivorous species were less likely to ingest debris than herbivores or gelatinovores. Our results indicate oceanic leatherback turtles and green turtles are at the greatest risk of both lethal and sublethal effects from ingested marine debris. To reduce this risk, anthropogenic debris must be managed at a global level.Análisis Global de la Ingesta de Residuos Antropogénicos por Tortugas MarinasLa ingesta de residuos marinos puede tener efectos letales y subletales sobre las tortugas marinas y otros animales. Aunque hay investigadores que han reportado la ingesta de residuos antropogénicos por tortugas marinas y la incidencia de la ingesta de residuos ha incrementado con el tiempo, no ha habido una síntesis global del fenómeno desde 1985. Por esto analizamos 37 estudios publicados, desde 1985 hasta 2012, que reportan datos colectados desde antes de 1900 y a lo largo del 2011. Investigamos específicamente si el predominio de la ingesta ha cambiado con el tiempo, qué tipos de residuos se ingieren comúnmente, la distribución geográfica de la ingesta de residuos por tortugas marinas en relación a la distribución global de residuos y cuáles especies y etapas de vida tienen más probabilidad de ingerir residuos. La probabilidad de que las tortugas verdes (Chelonia mydas) y laúd (Dermochelys coriacea) ingieran escombros incrementa significativamente con el tiempo; plástico fue el residuo que más se ingirió. Las tortugas en casi todas las regiones estudiadas ingieren residuos, pero la probabilidad de ingesta no estuvo relacionada con las densidades modeladas de residuos. Además de esto, tortugas más pequeñas, en etapa oceánica de vida, tuvieron una mayor probabilidad de ingerir residuos que las tortugas forrajeras terrestres, mientras que las especies carnívoras tuvieron menos probabilidad de ingerir residuos que las herbívoras o las gelatinívoras. Nuestros resultados indican que las tortugas verdes y laúd tienen el mayor riesgo de efectos letales y subletales de la ingesta de residuos marinos. Para reducir el riesgo, los residuos antropogénicos deben manejarse en un nivel global.

Exploring marine biofouling on anthropogenic litter in the Atlantic coastline of Morocco

Environmental damage caused by marine plastic debris occurs and has become a major contributor to marine pollution. This study analyzed the current state of marine plastic debris pollution and proposed essential strategies to reduce damage. To assess the current state of pollution arising from marine plastic debris, this study investigated the properties of plastic debris, reviewed case studies of ecological impacts, and examined the inflow and distribution of marine plastic debris. The results of this study indicate that the major deleterious effects of marine plastics are entanglement and ingestion. In addition, the amount of plastic waste entering the sea was estimated to be 230 Mt in 2015 and may increase to 554 Mt in 2050. In this study, three key strategies were proposed to reduce damage and preserve the ecosystem, including: 1) removing plastic debris in the marine environment, 2) limiting the release of plastic debris to the marine environment, and 3) preventing damage to humans and marine life from plastic debris. To minimize the environmental damage caused by marine plastic debris, the proposed response strategies should be implemented in parallel.

Northern gannets (Sula bassana) are considered to obtain prey usually by rapid, vertical, shallow plunge dives. In order to test this contention and investigate underwater foraging behaviour, we attached two types of data-logging systems to 11 parental northern gannets at Funk Island in the North-Wiest Atlantic. We documented, for the first time to the authors' knowledge, gannets performing long, flat-bottomed, U-shaped dives that involved underwater wing propulsion as well as rapid, shallow, V-shaped dives. The median and maximum dive depths and durations were 4.6 and 22.0 m and 8 and 38 s, respectively. Short, shallow dives were usually V-shaped and dives deeper than 8 m and longer than 10 s were usually U-shaped, including a period at constant depth (varying between 4 and 28s with median 8s). Diving occurred throughout the daylight period and deepest dives were performed during late morning. On the basis of motion sensors in the loggers and food collections from telemetered birds, we concluded that extended, deep dives were directed at deep schools of capelin, a small pelagic fish, and we hypothesized that V-shaped dives were aimed at larger, pelagic fishes and squids. Furthermore, these V-shaped dives allowed the birds to surprise their pelagic prey and this may be critical because the maximum swimming speeds of the prey species may exceed the maximum dive speeds of the birds.

There is a clear need for a state‐of‐the‐art review of how public participation in climate change adaptation is being considered in research across academic communities: The Rio Declaration developed in 1992 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) included explicit goals of citizen participation and engagement in climate actions (Principle 10). Nation states were given special responsibility to facilitate these by ensuring access to information and opportunities to participate in decision‐making processes. Since then the need for public participation has featured prominently in calls to climate action. Using text analysis to produce a corpus of abstracts drawn from Web of Science, a review of literature incorporating public participation and citizen engagement in climate change adaptation since 1992 reveals lexical, temporal, and spatial distribution dynamics of research on the topic. An exponential rise in research effort since the year 2000 is demonstrated, with the focus of research action on three substantial themes—risk, flood risk, and risk assessment, perception, and communication. These are critically reviewed and three substantive issues are considered: the paradox of participation, the challenge of governance transformation, and the need to incorporate psycho‐social and behavioral adaptation to climate change in policy processes. Gaps in current research include a lack of common understanding of public participation for climate adaptation across disciplines; incomplete articulation of processes involving public participation and citizen engagement; and a paucity of empirical research examining how understanding and usage of influential concepts of risk, vulnerability and adaptive capacity varies among different disciplines and stakeholders. Finally, a provisional research agenda for attending to these gaps is described.This article is categorized under:Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Institutions for AdaptationPolicy and Governance > Governing Climate Change in Communities, Cities, and Regions

Synthetic polymers in the marine environment: A rapidly increasing, long-term threat

Marine debris occurrence and treatment: A review

Plastic debris is ubiquitous in the marine environment and many of this is polyethylene based plastic bags. Its potential effect on marine organisms is still understudied. Hence, this study determined the histological changes induced in the intestine and liver of the juvenile rabbit fish, Siganus guttatus. S. guttatus (N = 150) were sub chronically exposed to plastic bag debris suspensions (0, 0.01, 0.1, 1.0 and 10mgL-1) for 10days. In addition to histological changes, the condition factor (CF) index of the fishes were assessed. Results showed that there was no significant difference in the CF index of the fishes exposed to varying concentrations of plastic suspensions, there was however histological changes in fishes exposed to 10mgL-1. The histological changes in the intestine were hyperemia, necrosis, goblet cells hyperplasia, and shortening of the villi. Histological changes in the liver were hyperemic blood vessels and vacuolization. Fishes exposed to 10mgL-1 exhibited a higher proximal, distal, liver and total organ index as compared to those unexposed (p < 0.05).

Increased attention is being directed at the problem of marine plastic pollution (Borrelle et al. 2017; Haward 20 18). Annually between 4.8 and 12. 7 million tonnes of plastic is estimated to be dumped in the world's seas and oceans (UNEP 2017) . A vast majority of marine plastic pollution (over 80%) derives from land-based sources. While this is a global problem-plastics reach the sea from all coastal states-83 % of land-based sourced marine plastic pollution originates from 20 of the world's 192 coastal states and the "top 20 polluting rivers were mostly located in Asia" (Lohr et al. 2017: 91 ). This can be explained in part as plastic waste is correlated to size of population (Lohr et al. 2017), but many developed countries have exported plastics to a number of Asian states for recycling (O'Neill 2019).

Marine litter or marine debris is a man-made solid material discarded, abandoned or lost in coastline or into the sea. To reduce the amount of marine litter in the ocean, raising public awareness is an important way. One of the contributing factors on marine litter is the lack of understanding within the community, but to identify how people notice the problem is required adequate research literature. The purpose of this study is to examine the awareness of West Aceh community on marine litter along western coastal area. The research objectives; 1) to evaluate societal perception towards marine litter; 2) to examine the urgent indicator of public awareness in West Aceh City. This study will employ a survey approach by distributing questionnaires to 383 respondents. It was found that respondents show low awareness on marine litter according to statistical data, but there are some rooms to manage in order to raise the level of public awareness. It concludes that sense of responsibility could be enhanced by involving public in any activities for preventing and eradicating marine litter. Education aspect is also important to increase public understanding about the threats of marine debris on environment, human health and economic income.

Throughout the history of mankind and the conquest of the seas and oceans, these water masses were always seen as unlimited sinks of wastes since they were assumed as being able to disperse, dilute and redistribute natural and synthetic substances. However, in the last few decades, we have finally realized that this capacity is not unlimited [1,2]. According to the literature, each year about 6.4 million tons of litter are deposited in oceans and seas. Per year, there are about 8 million tons of daily sewage, together with 5 million tons of solid residues, thrown into the marine environment by boats. Moreover, it was estimated that more than 13,000 plastic pieces are floating per each square kilometer of ocean [3]. The marine litter is a great and crescent environmental threat since it can be found in all oceans and seas, even in remote places far away from obvious sources of pollution. Marine litter can migrate long distances through oceans currents and winds being observed in marine and coastal environments, from poles to equator, from continental littorals to small remote islands. Islands completely made of litter already exist and the slow degradation process of litter aggravates this problem [4].

Marine litter is human-created waste that has been discharged into the coastal or marine environment. “Marine debris” is defined as anthropogenic, manufactured, or processed solid material discarded, disposed of, or abandoned in the environment, including all materials discarded into the sea, on the shore, or brought indirectly to the sea by rivers, sewage, storm water, waves, or winds. A large fraction of marine debris is made up of plastic items. Plastic marine debris has become one of the most prevalent pollution related problems affecting the marine environment globally. The widespread challenge of managing marine litter is a useful illustration of the global and transboundary nature of many marine environmental problems. At a global level, plastic litter constitutes 83–87% of all marine litter. Land-based sources are estimated to be responsible for approximately 80% of marine litter. The largest portion of plastic associated with marine pollution is often linked to the contribution from terrestrial sources associated with accidental or deliberate spills as well as inefficient waste management systems in heavily anthropized coastal regions. This chapter is intended to serve as a catalyst for further discussion to explore the potential for developing a Mediterranean regional framework for addressing marine litter.