Mediterranean Archives - One Earth - One Ocean e. V.

Plastic litter in aquatic environments of Maremma Regional Park (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy)

guenther — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 19:16:14 +0000

Cristiana Guerranti, Susanna Cannas, Costanza Scopetani, Paolo Fastelli,
Alessandra Cincinelli, Monia Renzi, Plastic litter in aquatic
environments of Maremma Regional Park (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy):
Contribution by the Ombrone river and levels in marine sediments, Marine
Pollution Bulletin, Volume 117, Issues 1–2, 15 April 2017, Pages
366-370, ISSN 0025-326X, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.02.021.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301364)
Abstract: Abstract
During two surveys in 2015 and 2016, sediments samples were collected
along the Ombrone river (Maremma Regional Park, province of Grosseto,
Italy), in particular at its mouth and in the marine area in front of
it, in order to quantify, identify and categorize plastic items (macro,
meso and micro-plastics and colour, material etc.) and evaluate their
potential sources. The Albegna and Osa rivers were identified as
external areas of comparison. The results of the analysis showed
different situations, especially as regards fluvial inputs, in addition
to evidencing local provisions of plastic material derived from
agricultural activities. The microplastics values per kg of sediment and
the prevailing type of items found largely varied between the
investigated sites (45–1069 items/kg dry sample).
Keywords: Transitional environment; Human-impact; Albegna river; Osa
river; Marine Strategy Framework Directive; Microplastics

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Assessment of marine debris on the coastal wetland of Martil in the North-East of Morocco

guenther — Mon, 05 Jun 2017 19:06:41 +0000

Adel Alshawafi, Mohamed Analla, Ebrahim Alwashali, Mustapha Aksissou,
Assessment of marine debris on the coastal wetland of Martil in the
North-East of Morocco, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 117, Issues
1–2, 15 April 2017, Pages 302-310, ISSN 0025-326X,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.079.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301078)
Abstract: Abstract
Plastic waste at the coastal wetland in Martil beach in the North-East
of Morocco is one of the problems that have appeared recently. This
study aims to characterize the marine debris in the coast of Martil
during the year 2015. The sampling is seasonally by type and size. The
result shows, for the macro debris, the abundance of plastic (57%),
lumber and paper (21.93%), cloth and fabric (7.8%), glass (5.42%), metal
(4.40%), and rubber (3.4%). Micro debris is also present in the area in
several forms such as wood, plants, and others by 75,63%. This was
followed by the foam (26,95%), line (7,8%), and the film (1,23%). The
seasonal variation (S1: January–March and S3: July to September) are the
most polluted months of the year. The sources of marine debris are
mainly tourism (beach users), land (run off), and commercial fishing in
the four seasons of the year.
Keywords: Plastic waste; Biodegradation; Marine pollution; Martil; Morocco

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The RADMED monitoring programme as a tool for MSFD implementation: towards an ecosystem-based approach

guenther — Wed, 11 May 2016 19:37:09 +0000

http://www.ocean-sci.net/11/897/2015/

López-Jurado, J. L., Balbín, R., Alemany, F., Amengual, B.,
Aparicio-González, A., Fernández de Puelles, M. L., García-Martínez, M.
C., Gazá, M., Jansá, J., Morillas-Kieffer, A., Moyá, F., Santiago, R.,
Serra, M., and Vargas-Yáñez, M.: The RADMED monitoring programme as a
tool for MSFD implementation: towards an ecosystem-based approach, Ocean
Sci., 11, 897-908, doi:10.5194/os-11-897-2015, 2015.

Abstract. In the western Mediterranean Sea, the RADMED monitoring
programme is already conducting several of the evaluations required
under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD) along the Spanish
Mediterranean coast. The different aspects of the ecosystem that are
regularly sampled under this monitoring programme are the physical
environment and the chemical and biological variables of the water
column, together with the planktonic communities, biomass and structure.
Moreover, determinations of some anthropogenic stressors on the marine
environment, such as contaminants and microplastics, are under development.

Data are managed and stored at the Instituto Español de Oceanografía
(IEO) Data Centre that works under the SeaDataNet infrastructure, and
are also stored in the IBAMar database. In combination with remote
sensing data, they are used to address open questions on the ecosystems
in the western Mediterranean Sea.

Please read the corrigendum first before accessing the article.

http://www.ocean-sci.net/11/897/2015/os-11-897-2015-corrigendum.pdf

http://www.ocean-sci.net/11/897/2015/os-11-897-2015.pdf

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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN MONACO ON THE 10TH AND 11TH OF MARCH 201

guenther — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 17:44:45 +0000

http://www.beyondplasticmed.org/cp-conf-monaco-en.pdf

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN MONACO ON THE 10TH AND 11TH OF MARCH 2015:
?PLASTIC IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA: WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS??

http://www.beyondplasticmed.org

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Plastic Busters for the Mediterranean Sea

guenther — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 17:02:51 +0000

http://unsdsn.org/what-we-do/solution-initiatives/plastic-busters-for-the-mediterranean-sea/

SOLUTIONS INITIATIVE

Plastic Busters for the Mediterranean Sea

The project will be carried out using an eco-friendly oceanographic
vessel that will cover the whole Mediterranean basin over a period of
three months. The ship will also touch keys areas in the Mediterranean
basin characterized by different anthropogenic impact.

The ship, which will house researchers from various Mediterranean
countries, will also represent an opportunity for interaction with
stakeholders in the main harbors touched. The route, the state of
scientific activities and dissemination events carried out by the vessel
will be published on a dedicated website.

In order to solve the gap of need of sensitive indicators of plastic
debris in Mediterranean environment sentinel organisms have been
selected and will be monitored during the expedition in order to detect
content and effects of marine litter in different ecological
compartments. All sampling and monitoring activities reported below will
be carried out during the Plastic Busters expedition.

http://unsdsn.org/news/2014/05/27/plastic-busters-embarked-on-the-mediterranea-boat-on-monday-may-27-at-bari/

http://unsdsn.org/news/2014/02/28/new-data-on-marine-litter-from-the-plastic-busters-team/

http://unsdsn.org/news/2013/10/02/the-plastic-busters-in-the-mediterranean-initiative-launched/

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ADRIATIC SEA A PIONEER IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION FOR RECOVERY AND REUSE OF FISHING NETS

guenther — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 16:37:40 +0000

http://www.econyl.com/adriatic-sea-a-pioneer-in-the-mediterranean-region-for-recovery-and-reuse-of-fishing-nets/

ADRIATIC SEA A PIONEER IN THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION FOR RECOVERY AND
REUSE OF FISHING NETS

PRESS RELEASE

Ancona, 16th October 2014

Aquafil, ECNC Land & Sea Group and Star Sock

Adriatic Sea a pioneer in the Mediterranean region for recovery and
reuse of fishing nets

With the Italian Port of Ancona promoted as national ?collection point?
and trawl vessels becoming involved for the benefit of the environment,
the Adriatic Sea becomes a pioneer throughout the Mediterranean for the
recovery and regeneration of abandoned fishing nets lying on the seabed.

This initiative is made possible thanks to a unique partnership between
researchers, divers, fishing industry operators, NGOs, local governments
and industry, presented today during a formal kick-off by the two
promoters: the DeFishGear project and Healthy Seas. The DeFishGear
project is funded by the EU-IPA Adriatic cross-border programme, and
aims to free the Adriatic of plastics. Healthy Seas is an initiative
that has started similar activities in the North Sea; it was established
by the Aquafil Group (a global player in the production of Nylon 6), the
ECNC Land & Sea Group and Star Sock.

Satisfaction with this positive synergy is unanimous, as emphasized by
Paul Pelusi, President of Consorzio Mediterraneo, the Italian partner of
the DeFishGear project. ?It?s a significant milestone, but also an
important starting point to strengthen the instruments and, more
generally, the culture of sustainability for the conservation of our sea.?

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Plastics and rubbish drowning Greek ecosystems

guenther — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 20:59:16 +0000

http://archipelago.gr/en/plastics-and-rubbish/

Plastics and rubbish drowning Greek ecosystems

WEDNESDAY, 01 OCTOBER 2014

The first autumn rains initiated a destructive journey of tons of
plastic and other debris, which had mostly been accumulating on the
roadsides throughout Greece, towards the sea. For many months, this
garbage was ?waiting? for the local authorities or communities to act,
for their collection, with no response!

It is unfortunate to see such a large part of the public impassively
contributing to the great presence of waste via their everyday life.
Only a few are aware that plastic is highly dangerous as it degrades
into our environment.

Until recently it was widely believed that plastic requires hundreds of
years to break down, and this led many people to quietly let the problem
roll over to our future generations by simply not taking any action.

The vicious circle of plastic is especially alarming. Recent research
conducted in Greece, and worldwide, have demonstrated how inaccurate the
belief of how slow the rate of plastic breakdown truly is.

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Floating debris in the Mediterranean Sea

guenther — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 19:44:34 +0000

Giuseppe Suaria, Stefano Aliani, Floating debris in the Mediterranean
Sea, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 86, Issues 1?2, 15 September
2014, Pages 494-504, ISSN 0025-326X,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.06.025.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14004056)
Abstract: Results from the first large-scale survey of floating natural
(NMD) and anthropogenic (AMD) debris (>2 cm) in the central and western
part of the Mediterranean Sea are reported. Floating debris was found
throughout the entire study area with densities ranging from 0 to 194.6
items/km2 and mean abundances of 24.9 AMD items/km2 and 6.9 NMD
items/km2 across all surveyed locations. On the whole, 78% of all
sighted objects were of anthropogenic origin, 95.6% of which were
petrochemical derivatives (i.e. plastic and styrofoam). Maximum AMD
densities (>52 items/km2) were found in the Adriatic Sea and in the
Algerian basin, while the lowest densities (<6.3 items/km2) were
observed in the Central Tyrrhenian and in the Sicilian Sea. All the
other areas had mean densities ranging from 10.9 to 30.7 items/km2.
According to our calculations, more than 62 million macro-litter items
are currently floating on the surface of the whole Mediterranean basin.
Keywords: Marine litter; Floating debris; Mediterranean; Plastic pollution

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Levels and fate of perfluoroalkyl substances in beached plastic pellets and sediments collected from Greece

guenther — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 19:47:06 +0000

Marta Llorca, Marinella Farré, Hrissi K. Karapanagioti, Damià Barceló,
Levels and fate of perfluoroalkyl substances in beached plastic pellets
and sediments collected from Greece, Marine Pollution Bulletin,
Available online 27 August 2014, ISSN 0025-326X,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.07.036.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14004792)
Abstract: Plastic debris damages marine wildlife and ecosystems becoming
an important source of marine pollution. In addition, they can sorb,
concentrate and stabilise contaminants acting as toxic carriers to the
marine food web. In this context, the presence of 18 perfluoroalkyl
substances (PFASs) in plastic pellets (n = 5) and beach sediment (n = 9)
samples widely distributed around Greek coastal areas was assessed.

The results, mainly, showed the sorption of PFASs onto pellet surface
from surrounding water with concentrations from method limit of
quantification to 115 ng/kg for C5, C7, C8 and C10 carboxylic acids and
C8 sulfonate acid. A similar pattern was found by comparing plastic
pellets and sediment for the same sampling locations that could indicate
a common origin of contamination in both types of samples. However,
since the number of analysed samples is limited, a more comprehensive
study with a higher number of samples should be performed in future
research.
Keywords: Plastic pellets; Beach sediments; Perfluoroalkyl substances

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Modelling exposure of oceanic higher trophic-level consumers to polychlorinated biphenyls: Pollution „hotspots“ in relation to mass mortality events of marine mammals

guenther — Thu, 14 Aug 2014 19:24:04 +0000

Itsuki C. Handoh, Toru Kawai, Modelling exposure of oceanic higher
trophic-level consumers to polychlorinated biphenyls: Pollution
?hotspots? in relation to mass mortality events of marine mammals,
Marine Pollution Bulletin, Available online 9 July 2014, ISSN 0025-326X,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.06.031.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14004111)
Abstract: Marine mammals in the past mass mortality events may have been
susceptible to infection because their immune systems were suppressed
through the bioaccumulation of environmental pollutants such as
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). We compiled mortality event data sets
of 33 marine mammal species, and employed a Finely-Advanced
Transboundary Environmental model (FATE) to model the exposure of the
global fish community to PCB congeners, in order to define critical
exposure levels (CELs) of PCBs above which mass mortality events are
likely to occur. Our modelling approach enabled us to describe the mass
mortality events in the context of exposure of higher-trophic consumers
to PCBs and to identify marine pollution ?hotspots? such as the
Mediterranean Sea and north-western European coasts. We demonstrated
that the CELs can be applied to quantify a chemical pollution Planetary
Boundary, under which a safe operating space for marine mammals and
humanity can exist.
Keywords: Chemical pollution; Polychlorinated biphenyls; Multi-media
model; Mortality events of marine mammals; Critical exposure level;
Planetary Boundaries

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