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Urban areas are hotspots for marine litter. Plastic materials are the most common type of beach litter and can fragment into even smaller pieces. A total of 24 sampling stations were distributed along the coast of Salvador, Brazil, from which every litter item > 2 cm was sampled. A total of 17,089 items were sampled from the beaches of Salvador in two different survey seasons (10,416 during the winter and 6,673 during the summer). Plastic represented 87.45% of all materials sampled during the winter and 85.24%, during the summer. In both seasons, the majority of the sampled beaches were classified as extremely dirty according to the Clean-Coast Index. Plastic fragments were found in every sampling station in both field surveys, representing 45.7% of the overall plastic items sampled. Tourism/recreation activities appeared to be important sources of litter to the area. Keywords: plastic pollution; plastic fragments; coastal management; urban beaches; coastal currents. 16 OCT 2015; Peer review: 12 NOV 2015; Revised: 18 NOV 2015; Accepted: 24 NOV 2015; Available on-line: 26 NOV 2015 This article contains supporting information online at http://www.aprh.pt/rgci/pdf/rgci-649_Fernandino_Supporting-Information.pdf Fernandino et al. (2016) RESUMO

Benthic litter has become a problem not only to the environment, but also to managers, due to its difficult access. Thus, little is still known about its impacts and behaviors as a type of pollution. The objective of the present study was to carry out a quali-quantitative analysis of the benthic litter of three beaches in Salvador, Brazil, so to investigate the sources of the pollution and possible mitigating actions. Three sampling campaigns were carried out between the years of 2012 and 2013. Transects measuring 100 m were placed perpendicularly to the coastline at each beach and, using scuba diving equipment, all benthic litter was gathered up to 1 m to each side of the axis cable. All items were sorted and analyzed regarding the type of material and possible sources. An adapted CCI was used to classify each beach and variance was analyzed through the Kruskal-Wallis test among sites and dates. During this period the beaches varied from very clean to extremely dirty regarding the accumulation of benthic litter. Plastic was the most common type of material and factors such as proximity with possible sources of pollution and hydrodynamics played an important role in the observed results. There were no significant differences among sites and dates. Actions to promote public awareness among the population that frequents these beaches are crucial to mitigate the situation, considering that the main litter sources were local. Moreover, current public beach cleaning efforts have shown to be ineffective.