Spatiotemporal variations in marine macro-litter pollution along the shoreline of Koh Mun Nai, an uninhabited island in the Gulf of Thailand

Abstract

Despite a recent ambitious plan to improve waste management in Thailand, few studies have monitored the impact of these policies on beached marine litter. Here, we assessed weekly the amounts and composition of stranded macro-litter (≥2.5 cm) on five beaches from an uninhabited island in Thailand during one year. A total of 24,407 items (391.86 kg) yielded a mean abundance of 3.18±11.39 items.m-2 (52.75±204.68 g.m-2), with plastic being the most abundant marine litter (48% of the total number). The overall Clean Coast Index (30.1) classified the beaches as ‘extremely dirty’, with a Plastic Abundance Index of 9.8 (‘very high abundance’ of plastics). When assessing the seasonal rates of accumulation, we found a higher flux pre-monsoon (0.05 items.m-2.d-1; 0.66 g.m-2.d-1) than post-monsoon (0.01 items.m-2.d-1; 0.35 g.m-2.d-1). Using modeling of the local hydrodynamic conditions, we explored the potential sources of the pollution, and surprisingly found that the closest river appeared not to be the source. Our results denote that the distribution and typology of marine litter were representatives of household and fishing activities, which in turn highlights the need for better regional litter management measures.