Abstract
Marine litter is a global challenge that has recently received policymakers’ attention, with new environmental targets in addition to changes to old legislation. There are no global estimates of benthic litter because of the scarcity of data and only patchy survey coverage. However, estimates of baseline abundance and composition of litter are vital in order to implement litter reduction policies and adequate monitoring schemes. Two large-scale surveys of submarine geomorphological features in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans reveal that litter was found at all locations, despite their remoteness. Litter abundance was patchy, but both surveyed oceans had sites of high litter density. There was a significant difference in the type of litter found in the two oceans, with the Indian Ocean sites being dominated by fishing gear, whereas the Atlantic Ocean sites displayed a greater mix of general refuse. This study suggests that seabed litter is ubiquitous on raised benthic features, such as seamounts. It also concludes that the pattern of accumulation and composition of the litter is determined by a complex range of factors both environmental and anthropogenic. We suggest that the tracing of fishing effort and gear type would be an important step to elucidate hotspots of litter abundance on seamounts, ridges and banks.
Highlights
Marine litter has been identified as a significant and growing global problem (UNEP, 2009; UNGA, 2012; GOC, 2014)
All litter abundances were within those previously reported in the North Atlantic Ocean for seamounts, banks, mounds and ridges (Pham et al, 2014) and for coastal waters (Galgani et al, 2000; Mifsud et al, 2013), but greater than that previously observed in more remote locations (Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Arc; Barnes et al, 2009)
To extrapolate our data to provide global estimates of litter on seamounts is challenging, as we only surveyed
Summary
Marine litter has been identified as a significant and growing global problem (UNEP, 2009; UNGA, 2012; GOC, 2014). Estimates suggest 6.4 million tons of litter enter the marine ecosystem annually (UNEP, 2009). Litter items, defined as; persistent, manufactured or processed solids that have been disposed of or abandoned, deliberately or unintentionally (UNEP, 2005), are present in all marine environments, including remote locations such as Antarctica (Barnes et al, 2009; Ivar Do Sol et al, 2011) and in the deep sea (Galgani et al, 2000; Ramirez-Llodra et al, 2011; Pham et al, 2014). The source and fate of marine litter is little understood (Derraik, 2002). Plastics can fragment to microplastics which have potential impacts on the environment and biota, both physical and biochemical (Teuten et al, 2009; Andrady, 2011; Wright et al, 2013; Bakir et al, 2014)
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