Developing Realistic Models for Assessing Marine Plastic Pollution in Semi-Enclosed Seas

Abstract

Having steadily increased with global production in the past 50 years, the presence and accumulation of plastic debris is now recognized as a major environmental problem, with consequences directly affecting not only marine ecosystems, but also society and human well-being. After human activities release plastic litter, it is either directly discharged into the ocean or it is transported to the sea via inland pathways (e.g., rivers, lakes, wastewater treatment plants). Once in the ocean, plastics are further transported and transformed by processes such as ocean currents, winds and waves, water dispersion, fragmentation, biofouling, sinking, sedimentation, and beaching (Figure 1).