Plastic fragments as a major component of marine litter: a case study in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

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

Assessing threats, regulations, and strategies to abate plastic pollution in LAC beaches during COVID-19 pandemic

“…A study developed in Brazilian coastal environments found that plastic comprises more than 80% of debris ( Fernandino et al, 2016 ), with values ranging from approximately 0.11 items m −2 ( Ivar do Sul and Costa, 2013 ) to 133 items m −2 ( Cordeiro and Costa, 2010 ). In Argentina, 71,848 items were collected from 888,444 m −2 of a beach (0.08 item m −2 ), from which 83.2% was plastic (WWF Argentina, 2020).…”

Sources, spatial distribution, and abundance of marine debris on Thondi coast, Palk Bay, Southeast coast of India

“…The values of C i (items/m 2), CCI i , Coast index, and visual assessment are given in Table 1. The main objectives for many researchers are to find the spatial distribution, abundance, CCI, and concentration of marine debris in various coastal regions [13,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…Ref. [31] explained that marine debris of concentration 50.82 items/m 2 in Salvador, Brazil. The debris is identified as plastic, metal, glass, wood, cloth, plastic bags, beverage cans, barbecue, wooden sticks, and plastic fragments.…”

“…A Clean-Coast Index (CCI) was developed and suggested as a new tool for determining coast cleanliness [20]. Globally many researchers apply CCI for assessing the cleanliness of coastal regions [13,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]. Several past studies were focused on the distribution of heavy metals and pollution status of marine sediments (near the coast and shelf ) in various regions in the Bay of Bengal, India [33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45].…”

Impacto da conscientização e adoção de copos individuais numa escola da rede pública de Pernambuco

“…Em praias de Salvador, Bahia, o descarte de plásticos representou 87,4% do lixo indevido encontrado (Fernandino et al, 2016). Na orla da praia de Boa Viagem, Recife, Pernambuco, a maior parte do lixo indevido vinha dos frequentadores (Silva-Cavalcanti et al, 2009).…”