Floating macro-litter along the Mediterranean French coast: Composition, density, distribution and overlap with cetacean range

Di‐Méglio, Nathalie; Campana, Ilaria

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.02.026

Cited by 59 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 87 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…McCoy, 1988;Topçu et al, 2010;Arcangeli et al, 2018; to 15-175 items/km 2 (e.g. Aliani et al, 2003;Carlson et al, 2017;Di-Méglio & Campana, 2017;Ourmieres et al, 2018;Palatinus et al, 2019). Such discrepancies could be attributed to actual inter-annual or seasonal changes in litter input and abundance in the basin, or to other contingent factors including varying meteorological conditions, distance from land (Ryan, 2015;Pedrotti et al, 2016), observation height, position and speed of the ship, which can all greatly affect the estimation of litter concentrations at sea (Dahlberg & Day, 1985;Ribic et al, 1992;Titmus & Hyrenbach, 2011;Goldstein et al, 2013;Ryan, 2013b;Campana et al 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual observations of floating macro litter around Italy (Mediterranean Sea)

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report the results of a visual survey of floating natural (NML) and anthropogenic (AML) macro-litter (>2.5 cm) performed in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea during a dual-use campaign onboard the Italian Navy tall ship “Amerigo Vespucci” which circumnavigated the Italian peninsula during May-June 2016. The distribution, abundance and composition of floating marine litter were assessed using a 10 m fixed-width strip transect method. Over 88 h of transect counts were performed, for a total of 168 transects, covering an overall survey length of 1026.35 km. 4756 anthropogenic litter items were counted during the transects, 96.9 % of which were classified as plastic items. Floating litter was found throughout the entire study area with densities ranging from 0 to 9205 items/km2 and with a mean abundance of 492 AML items/km2 and 77 NML items/km2 across all surveyed locations. Maximum AML densities (>3500 items/km2) were recorded in the Adriatic Sea, while the lowest densities (<50 items/km2) were found along the coastline of Sardinia and in the Strait of Messina. Our results document the ubiquitous presence of floating plastic litter around the Italian peninsula and underline the need to expand our knowledge about the main sources, transport, accumulation and fate of marine litter in the entire Mediterranean region.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual observations of floating macro litter around Italy (Mediterranean Sea)

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Despite differences among floating items observed in the Rhone River and top items found in beaches and floating at sea in the Mediterranean region, there is coherence in the high percentage of plastic items composing the marine litter (Table S2, SI). Furthermore, these top items lists included SUP items such as bottles or bags within the most frequent items (Addamo et al, 2017;Arcangeli et al, 2018;Di-Meglio and Campana, 2017).…”

Section: Macro-litter Abundance and Plastic Loadingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Macro-litter in surface waters from the Rhone River: Plastic pollution and loading to the NW Mediterranean Sea

Castro-Jiménez

González-Fernández

Fornier

et al. 2019

Marine Pollution Bulletin

166

107

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present here the first estimates of floating macro-litter in surface waters from the Rhone River, based on monthly visual observations during 1-year period (2016-2017). Plastic represented 77% of the identified items, confirming its predominance in riverine floating litter. Fragments (2.5-50 cm) and Single Use Plastics (i.e. bags, bottles and cover/packaging) were among the most abundant items. Frequent non-plastic floating litter were paper items such as packaging material and newspapers, and metal items (mostly cans), representing 14% and 5% of total litter, respectively. A lower-end estimate resulted in ∼223,000 plastic items (∼0.7 t of plastic) transported annually by the Rhone surface waters to the Gulf of Lion (NW Mediterranean Sea). Floating macroplastics are only a fraction of the total plastic export by the Rhone. Our study highlights the current discrepancy between field observations and theoretical estimations. Improvements are needed to harmonize data collection methodologies for field studies and model validation.

show abstract

“…For example, seabird species feeding at the sea surface are more susceptible to plastic ingestion than diving species (Ryan, 1987). Species that ingest small microplastics, such as many fishes and surface-foraging seabirds might be at highest risk in areas where microplastics concentrate, such as the subtropical gyres, whereas species ingesting larger plastic items could potentially encounter these closer to the continental coasts where rivers and other human activities spill and accumulate large quantities of plastic litter (Rech et al, 2014(Rech et al, , 2015Di-Méglio and Campana, 2017;Fossi et al, 2017). Indeed, many reports of meso-and macroplastics ingestion include sea turtles and whales stranded on continental shores (Schuyler et al, 2014;Lusher et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Marine Plastic Pollution From Continental Coasts to Subtropical Gyres—Fish, Seabirds, and Other Vertebrates in the SE Pacific

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Anthropogenic Marine Debris (AMD) in the SE Pacific has primarily local origins from land-based sources, including cities (coastal and inland), beach-goers, aquaculture, and fisheries. The low frequency of AMD colonized by oceanic biota (bryozoans, lepadid barnacles) suggests that most litter items from coastal waters of the Humboldt Current System (HCS) are pulled offshore into the South Pacific Subtropical Gyre (SPSG). The highest densities of floating micro-and macroplastics are reported from the SPSG. An extensive survey of photographic records, unpublished data, conference proceedings, and published studies revealed interactions with plastics for 97 species in the SE Pacific, including 20 species of fish, 5 sea turtles, 53 seabirds, and 19 marine mammals. Sea turtles are most affected by interactions with plastics, underlined by the fact that 4 of the 5 species suffer both from entanglement and ingestion. Reports gathered in this review suggest that interactions along the continental coast are mostly via entanglement. High frequencies of microplastic ingestion have been reported from planktivorous fish and seabirds inhabiting the oceanic waters and islands exposed to high densities of microplastics concentrated by oceanic currents in the SPSG. Our review also suggests that some species from the highly productive HCS face the risk of negative interactions with AMD, because food and plastic litter are concentrated in coastal front systems. In order to improve the conservation of marine vertebrates, especially of sea turtles, urgent measures of plastic reduction are needed.

show abstract

Floating macro-litter along the Mediterranean French coast: Composition, density, distribution and overlap with cetacean range

Cited by 59 publications

References 87 publications

Visual observations of floating macro litter around Italy (Mediterranean Sea)

Visual observations of floating macro litter around Italy (Mediterranean Sea)

Macro-litter in surface waters from the Rhone River: Plastic pollution and loading to the NW Mediterranean Sea

Impacts of Marine Plastic Pollution From Continental Coasts to Subtropical Gyres—Fish, Seabirds, and Other Vertebrates in the SE Pacific

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About