The MArine Debris hyperspectral reference Library collection (MADLib)

Concerns about increasing marine debris at priority tourist destinations in SEZ Mandalika require a comprehensive mitigation strategy. The purpose of this study is to analyze the characteristics of marine debris on three different types of beaches and to analyze marine debris mitigation strategies. Data collection was conducted by field survey with a transect methode. Marine debris mitigation strategies are identified quantitative SWOT analysis. Characteristics of macro marine debris at Tanjung Aan Beach based on the amount dominated 41% plastic. Meso marine debris is dominated by plastic foam in the form of white cork 48%. In the fishing area, the characteristics of marine debris is dominated type of cloth material 52% in the form of fishing thread and other fabrics. Meso marine debris in the fishing area dominated 45% in the form of white cork flakes. Characteristics of macro marine debris at Batu Berang Beach, it was found that fabric waste dominated 42%. Meso waste in Batu Beach is dominated 60% plastic. The alternative strategy that the highest score (2.99) is the sorting of organic and non-organic waste in various coastal typologies by visitors with the preparation of facilities and infrastructure by the tourism management or village government.

The colonization characteristics of bacterial communities on microplastics or plastic debris (PD) have generated great concern in recent years. However, the influence of environmental factors and polymer types on the formation of bacterial communities on PD in estuarine areas is less studied. To gain additional insights, five types of PD (polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, and polyurethane) were exposed for three-time periods (two weeks, four weeks, and six weeks) in the Haihe Estuary. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to identify the bacterial communities on PD, in seawater, and in sediment samples. The results indicate that the average growth rate of a biofilm is affected by nutrients (total nitrogen and total phosphorus) and salinity. Furthermore, salinity is the primary factor affecting bacterial diversity of the colonies on PD. In addition, genera of bacteria show selectivity toward the PD polymer type and tend to colonize their preferred substrate. Compared with seawater and sediment, PD could be carriers for enrichment of Vibrio in the estuarine environment with salinity ≥26 (± 2‰), which might increase the ecological risk of PD in marine environments.

Plastic debris has become a significant environmental problem due to its persistence in nature and harmful ecological impacts. Recently, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and deep learning models have been utilized for detection and analysis, as effective plastic debris monitoring is essential for mitigation efforts. While extensive research has focused on coastal areas, riverine environments remain understudied. This study evaluates the capability of UAVs and the You Only Look Once version 5 (YOLOv5) deep learning model in detecting and quantifying macro plastic debris in river systems. The research was conducted in 2021 in the lower reaches of the Citarum River, Muara Gembong District, Bekasi Regency, West Java Province, Indonesia. UAVs were deployed to capture aerial images, which were then processed using the YOLOv5_small and YOLOv5_large models. A total of 416 images were analyzed, and plastic debris was classified based on size and distribution. The results indicate that UAV effectively capture high-resolution images of plastic debris in river environments. The YOLOv5 model successfully identified plastic debris; however, its accuracy requires further improvement, with mean Average Precision (mAP) scores of 16.90% and 19.21% for YOLOv5_small and YOLOv5_large, respectively. Detection performance varied depending on factors such as solar radiation intensity, surface water reflection, and debris characteristics. Future research should explore advanced deep learning architectures, integrate multi-spectral imaging, and assess seasonal variations in plastic debris accumulation. This study provides a foundation for the development of automated, scalable plastic debris monitoring systems to support environmental management and pollution mitigation efforts.

Plastic debris becomes a global problem that threatens the coastal ecosystems, and the supralittoral area (beach) turns to be a place for plastic debris to accumulate. Data from the United Nations (UN) states that Indonesia is the second plastic debris contributor in world waters. This study aimed to examine the spectral characteristics of plastic debris accumulated on the beach. The data was collected from the coast of Makassar at 3 different stations: Jenneberang River estuary, Losari Beach and Tallo River estuary. The spectral sample was measured using a 4000 A spectroradiometer that works on a wavelength spectrum of 340 - 1040 nm. The results showed that the optimum value for plastic debris identification in the coastal area at low tide (dry sand) is 450-670 nm and at high tide (wet sand) is 450-950 nm. This value will be a reference in the remote sensing method, especially multispectral classification in mapping plastic debris found in coastal areas, and will be one solution to effectively mapping plastic debris.

Marine debris is one of the environmental issues that can be brought on by rapid human development and activity, including marine tourism, like what happened in the coastal area of Gunungkidul, Indonesia. The issue of marine debris might decrease the environmental quality and impact tourism in Gunungkidul. This study aims to identify the characteristics of coastal typologies in Gunungkidul and analyze their influence on the characteristics of marine debris. Google Earth images and the Digital Elevation Model were used to interpret and classify the typology across the study area based on their physical characteristics. Marine debris samples, either macro or meso-sized, were collected using the transect method for each beach. Based on the imagery interpretation combined with elevation data from DEMNAS, there are three typologies in the Gunungkidul coastal area, i.e., pocket, non-pocket, and cliff beaches. Cliff typology was eliminated and only pocket and non-pocket beaches were used as marine debris sample collection locations. Hence, four beaches were chosen as study areas, i.e., Seruni, Drini, Sepanjang, and Sedahan; each represents each coastal typology. About 193 macro-sized and 217 meso-sized debris were found in our research area, totaling 1380.31 g. Compared to non-pocket beaches, pocket beaches contain more marine debris. The higher slopes of the pocket beach typology will trap marine debris and make it challenging to reenter the water. On pocket beaches, oceanographic processes concentrate marine debris in one location. Still, on non-pocket beaches, marine debris can disperse and return to the sea more readily due to the cycling of currents near the coast.

Simple SummaryThe presence of plastic in oceans is extremely concerning as it poses a potential threat to marine organisms; for instance, they could become entangled in the plastic or they could ingest it. The objective of this work is to provide evidence, for the first time, of the impact that plastic debris has on stranded cetaceans in the Balearic Islands, in terms of ingestion and entanglement. We examined the occurrence of marine debris in the gastrointestinal tracts of 30 cetaceans, from five different species, that were found stranded around the Balearic Sea: Stenella coeruleoalba, Tursiops truncatus, Grampus griseus, Balaenoptera physalus, and Physeter macrocephalus. Three specimens (10% of the sample) were found to have ingested plastic items, including fishing nets, plastic bags, and strapping lines. The species affected were T. truncatus, and P. macrocephalus. Moreover, a total of seven cases of entanglement were recorded during the study, affecting four different species (S. coeruleoalba, T. truncatus, P. macrocephalus, and Megaptera novaeangliae), and all of them were entangled in discarded fishing nets. When possible, plastics were characterised by size, shape, colour, and polymer type. We concluded that the occurrence of marine debris observed in this work confirms the impact of plastic pollution on cetaceans in the Balearic Sea for the first time.The global distribution and presence of plastic, at all levels of the water column, has made plastic debris one of today’s greatest environmental challenges. The ingestion and entanglement of plastic-containing marine debris has been documented in more than 60% of all cetacean species. In light of the increasing pressure on cetaceans, and the diversity of factors that they face, the aim of this work is to provide evidence of the impact of plastic debris on stranded cetaceans, in terms of ingestion and entanglement, in the Balearic Islands for the first-time. Detailed examinations, necropsies, and plastic debris analysis were performed on 30 of the 108 cetaceans stranded between 2019 and 2022. Specimens belonging to five different species, Stenella coeruleoalba, Tursiops truncatus, Grampus griseus, Balaenoptera physalus, and Physeter macrocephalus, were evaluated. Ten percent of the cetaceans (N = 3) presented plastic debris in their stomach, with one case of obstruction and perforation. Fishery gear fragments (ropes and nets) were found in two adults of T. truncatus, whereas packaging debris (plastic bag, packing straps, and plastic sheets) were found in a juvenile P. macrocephalus. Plastic items analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) reported three polymer types: polypropylene, polyamide, and high-density polypropylene. A total of seven cases of entanglement were recorded during the study, affecting four different species (S. coeruleoalba, T. truncatus, P. macrocephalus, and Megaptera novaeangliae). Only two individuals were freed from the nets, although one died after a week, whereas the rest were already found dead. In conclusion, data collected in the present study provided evidence of plastic ingestion and entanglement in cetaceans of the Balearic Islands for the first-time, thus highlighting the need for the regular examination of stranded cetaceans (as they are top predators) in future research to better understand the effects of these pollutants.

Marine debris is one of the global problems due to human activities. One of the biggest loads of marine debris is in the city of Jakarta, namely the Pluit Emplacement. Emplacement Pluit is a special location for managing marine debris in Jakarta, with the largest burden of marine debris problems discharged from urban areas. This study analyses aquatic waste's generation or marine debris, composition, and recycling potential at the Pluit Emplacement. The research process starts with formulating the problem, conducting a literature review, collecting data, and analyzing it under ideal conditions and planning. This research was conducted by sampling for seven consecutive days, and load count analysis to determine the generation and composition of marine debris. The marine debris composition is grouped using a load based on the volume/volume (v/v) ratio. The generation of marine debris in the Pluit Emplacement can reach 230 m3/day or 303.6 tons/day. However, this value is higher than other areas in Jakarta and other areas in Indonesia. The composition of marine debris consists of Straw (PET), Food packaging, Drink cup, PET Bottle, Miscellaneous packaging, Plastic bags (PP), Plastic toys (HDPE), Metal, Styrofoam, biodegradable waste (wood, twigs and leaves) which is 0.1%; 3.1%; 2.2%; 22.5%; 4.0%; 0.7%; 0.8%; 0.6%; 3.1%; and 62.8%, respectively. The level of potential for recycling of Pluit's marine debris is 67.86%, with the greatest potential being from the utilization of biodegradable waste into compost or recycling of plastic waste, especially PET plastic. This considers the absence of previous sustainable marine debris processing. These findings can be one of the considerations for the government in making decisions to carry out appropriate planning according to the characteristics of marine debris, that this research can also be used as consideration for regions and even other countries in the characterization and planning of marine debris management.

Currently, a significant amount of research is focused on detecting Marine Debris and assessing its spectral behaviour via remote sensing, ultimately aiming at new operational monitoring solutions. Here, we introduce a Marine Debris Archive (MARIDA), as a benchmark dataset for developing and evaluating Machine Learning (ML) algorithms capable of detecting Marine Debris. MARIDA is the first dataset based on the multispectral Sentinel-2 (S2) satellite data, which distinguishes Marine Debris from various marine features that co-exist, including Sargassum macroalgae, Ships, Natural Organic Material, Waves, Wakes, Foam, dissimilar water types (i.e., Clear, Turbid Water, Sediment-Laden Water, Shallow Water), and Clouds. We provide annotations (georeferenced polygons/ pixels) from verified plastic debris events in several geographical regions globally, during different seasons, years and sea state conditions. A detailed spectral and statistical analysis of the MARIDA dataset is presented along with well-established ML baselines for weakly supervised semantic segmentation and multi-label classification tasks. MARIDA is an open-access dataset which enables the research community to explore the spectral behaviour of certain floating materials, sea state features and water types, to develop and evaluate Marine Debris detection solutions based on artificial intelligence and deep learning architectures, as well as satellite pre-processing pipelines.

Environmental pollution from plastic debris is raising concerns not only for the vulnerability of marine species to ingestion but also for potential human health hazards posed by small particles, known as microplastics. In this context, marine areas suffer from a lack of constant shoreline cleanups to remove accumulated debris, preventing their degradation and fragmentation. To establish optimal strategies for streamlining plastic recovery and recycling operations, it is important to have a system for recognizing plastic debris on the beach and, more specifically, for identifying the type of polymer and mapping (e.g., topologically assessing) the distribution of plastic debris on shoreline sands. This study aims to provide an operative tool finalized to perform an in situ detection, analysis, and characterization of plastic debris present in the coastal environment (i.e., beaches), adopting a near-infrared (NIR)-based hyperspectral imaging (HSI) approach. In more detail, the possibility of identifying and classifying polymers of plastic debris by NIR-HSI in three different areas along the Pontine coastline of the Lazio region (Latina, Italy) was investigated. The study focused on three distinct beaches (i.e., Foce Verde, Capo Portiere, and Sabaudia), each characterized by a different type of sand. For each location, the adopted approach allowed for the systematic classification of the various types of plastic waste found. Three Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) classification models were developed using a cascade detection strategy. The first model was designed to distinguish plastics from other materials in sand samples, the second to detect plastic particles in the sand, and the third to classify the type of polymer composing each identified plastic particle. Obtained results showed that, on the one hand, plastics were correctly detected from sand and other materials (i.e., sensitivity = 0.892–1.000 and specificity = 0.909–0.996), and on the other, the recognition of polymer type was satisfactory, according to the performance statistical parameters (i.e., sensitivity = 1.000 and specificity = 0.991–1.000). This research highlights the potential of the NIR-HSI approach as a reliable, non-invasive method for plastic debris monitoring and polymer classification. Its scalability and adaptability suggest possible future integration into mobile systems, enabling large-scale monitoring and efficient debris management.

Bantul Regency in Yogyakarta has a shoreline of 16.85 km and is famous for its beach attractions, including Baru and Samas beaches. In Bantul, the Progo river is also recorded in the top 20 rivers globally, contributing to plastic waste pollution in coastal areas. Therefore, the problem of marine debris in Bantul is a serious matter because it can impact the environment and the tourism sector. However, marine debris characteristics in Bantul are still poorly understood. This research aims to determine the characteristics of meso- and macro-sized marine debris, its source and transportation, and the geomorphic and hydro-oceanographic processes that may affect it. A combination of geospatial analysis of high-resolution aerial photographs, field surveys with the transect method, and GIS approaches are used to achieve those objectives. Research shows that the marine debris found at Baru and Samas beaches in Yogyakarta is 149 pieces and 95 pieces, respectively. Macro-sized marine debris was dominantly found in Samas (80%), and meso-sized marine debris was dominantly found in Baru (67%). The total mass of marine debris in Baru and Samas beaches is 129 g and 1722 g, respectively. The vast amount of marine debris and smaller size in Baru is thought to have originated from land and was carried away by fluvial processes in the wider (2462.08 km2) and more elongated (Rb: 0.355) Progo watershed. Meanwhile, the larger mass of marine debris at Samas may be caused by the reflective beach typology (ε: 52.86), which can carry a higher abundance of marine debris.

Monitoring marine debris has long been a challenging issue owing to the complex and changeable underwater environment. To fast and accurately detect marine debris, in this article, a novel object detection network termed as YOLOTrashCan is proposed for detecting underwater marine debris. The YOLOTrashCan model consists of feature enhancement and feature fusion. In the feature enhancement part, the ECA_DO-Conv_CSPDarknet53 backbone, which combines efficient channel attention (ECA) module and depthwise over-parameterized convolutional (DO-Conv), is proposed to extract the depth semantic features of marine debris. In the feature fusion part, the DPMs_PixelShuffle_PANET module is presented to improve the detection ability for marine debris, where dilated parallel modules (DPMs) with multiscale dilated rate are designed as enhanced feature modules for different scale objects of marine debris. Notably, the size of the network is only 214 MB using the DPMs' method. Extensive experiments and thorough analysis are validated on the TrashCan 1.0 dataset. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm not only improves the detection accuracy of underwater marine debris but also reduces the size of the network model.

<p>Marine plastic pollution has increased exponentially since the start of mass production in the 1950´s and the negative impacts of marine plastic debris (MPD) on marine life are general acknowledged. Typically, MPD is overgrown by diverse biofilms comprised of prokaryote and eukaryotes, but it is mostly unresolved whether polymers are colonized by opportunist that attach to any hard surface, or if different polymers attract specific communities. This question is further complicated by the fact that floating MPD is subjected to UV-induced photo-oxidation, which results in polymer degradation, i.e. the release of smaller and more bioavailable daughter products, and also causes changes in the polymer’s surface properties. If weathered surfaces are more prone to colonization than pristine ones and whether communities on these surfaces are different is unknown. In consonance, whether colonizers interact with the different polymers, e.g. degrade it, or are just ‘hitching a ride’ is ambiguous. To solve this complex problem we investigated the initial colonization of pristine plastics and the influence of photo-oxidation on community succession. We incubated five different polymer types (PE, PP, PET, PS and Nylon; one set UV pre-treated, one set pristine), in shallow coastal waters of the Caribbean island St. Eustatius at a depth of 5m. Multivariant-analyses to compare day 1 and day 6 revealed that the microbial community changed over time, which is a typical feature during colonisation. Communities of day 1 and day 6 were also analysed separately to assess the influences of UV pre-treatment and polymer type during separate stages of biofilm development. On day 1, UV pre-treated foils attracted a different community than non-pre-treated foils, while there was no statistical difference in community composition between the five polymer types. In contrast, on day 6, the influence of UV treatment on community composition was no longer significant, while different polymer types supported different communities. These results show that the community is dynamic in the initial stage of colonization of polymers. The effects of UV pre-treatment and polymer type indicate that colonizers are not purely opportunistic. With more in-depth analysis on OTU and/or order level, we aim to answer the following questions: 1) What is the main driver for community succession 2) Are there polymer-specific members of the community 3) Do the different polymer types select for communities that might utilise the polymer or its UV-degradation products for energy gain and/or growth.</p>

There has been a tremendous proliferation in plastic production in the last five decades due to its low cost and versatile applications. Plastic debris dominates the marine litter globally and has been found in the most pristine environment including the abysmal region of the world ocean. Studies show that over 8 million tons of plastics are dumped in the ocean annually (Gregory, 2009). Plastics are persistent in the environment and take several decades to degrade especially in the ocean. Large plastic debris can heavily damage the coral reefs and may cause entanglement, choking, blockage of digestive tracts when ingested by turtles, whales, sharks etc, causing several thousand deaths annually among these organisms. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that seldom originate from fragmentation of large plastic debris or are produced to serve some specific purposes. Microplastics pose greater threats as they can be mistaken for food by filter-feeders and planktivorous fish, and can also adsorb large quantities of recalcitrant organic pollutants (OPs). Impacts on marine biota may include endocrine disruption, carcinogenesis, and sexual disruption, etc. These impacts may not always be obvious but OPs surely affect marine biota once they enter the food web even at low concentrations (Mato et al., 2001) which biomagnify up the marine food web, hence, explains the need for their investigation. In this study, the spatial and temporal distribution of microplastics was investigated for the first time in Qatar; both in sediments and seawater. Eight beaches across Qatar and four sea surface stations were surveyed between the months of December 2014 and March 2015. The objectives of this study were: 1. To analyze the spatial and temporal variability of microplastics in seawater and sediments, in sea surface and intertidal sandy beach environments, respectively. 2. To characterize the isolated microplastics based on size, shape, colour, and type of polymer. 3. To describe macroplastics collected from beaches based on polymer type and quantify the concentration of OPs adsorbed on their surfaces. 4. To investigate the rate of adsorption of OPs on virgin plastic pellets in a field experiment. A general overview of the followed methodologies is given in Appendix 1. In the first phase of this study, the spatial and temporal distribution of microplastics was investigated in seawater and sediments respectively. Four sea surface stations (Appendix 2) and eight beaches (Appendix 3) across Qatar were surveyed between the months of December 2014 and March 2015. Seawater was sampled respectively with a surface neuston net (300 μm mesh size) towed off the side of the speedboat in undisturbed water for 5 minutes at 1.5 knots (Doyle et al., 2011). Next, collected materials in the cod were transferred into labeled, acid-treated insulated glass containers to prevent contamination. Concentrations of microplastics were given in square meters as sampling was done in two-dimensional air-sea interface. Physicochemical parameters (temperature, salinity, pH and dissolved oxygen) were measured in-situ and recorded at each sampling site. Additionally, eight coastal stations (Al Dhakhira, Ras-Laffan, The Pearl, Doha Bay, Al Ruwais, Dukhan, Umm Bab, and Mesaieed) were chosen on the basis of their accessibility and being evenly distributed along Qatar coastline. For each sampling, sediments from the top 2 cm were collected at the most recent high tidal mark on shore from a square area (0.5 × 0.5 m) along the shore line. Three replicate quadrats (5 meters apart) were sampled in each beach. The samples were homogenized and transferred into acid-treated glass containers to prevent contamination and transported to the laboratory for analyses. Microplastics (Appendix 4) were discovered in all samples and their abundance varied both in intertidal sandy beaches and sea surface. Two-factor ANOVA revealed that the spatial variability of microplastics in sea surface stations was statistically significant however, there was no observable temporal variability (Appendix 5). The average concentration of microplastics in all 8 beaches was not significantly different (Appendix 6). Chemical analysis revealed the occurrence of OPs with endocrine effects on all obtained macroplastics, and concentration of pollutants was consistent in all sites. Large piece-to-piece variations of contamination up to two orders of magnitude were discovered within sites (2 to 1,005 ng/g), although there was no significant difference in contaminant concentration among all sites for PCBs and PAHs respectively. Since plastic debris are hydrophobic and easily adsorb organic pollutants the second phase of this study was targeted at investigating the concentration of PCBs and PAHs adsorbed on macroplastics in situ. Field adsorption/desorption experiment was performed to investigate how pellets of different polymers and contaminated with POPs behave when placed in ambient seawater. Pellets were deployed and later retrieved at 48h, 96 h, 192 h, and 312 h respectively. The pellets were analyzed for PCBs and PAHs and undeployed pellets were also analyzed at time 0. Adsorbed PCBs and PAHs concentration showed a steady decrease with time, suggesting that contaminated pellets ending in the marine environment release their adsorbed contaminants in less contaminated seawaters revealing a complex OPs dynamic between plastics an seawater as a function of differential concentrations of pollutants and environmental conditions. This study is the first of its kind in Qatar and seemingly in the entire Arabian Gulf region. Marine pollution is a growing concern in Qatar coastal and offshore environment. Marine debris is of major concern due to the fact that plastic can take several decades to be fully degraded. Results from this study indicate that microplastics are ubiquitous in Qatar coastal environment and the fact that they are easily mistaken for food and ingested by zooplankton and smaller fishes makes them a serious threat to the marine food web. Hence, regular monitoring of the occurrence of microplastics and studying how they may affect the foodweb and potential contaminations of exploited (seafood) species are needed to give policy makers an insight of the sources of the debris and proffer suggestions on how to tackle the menace using a holistic approach. References Doyle, M.J., Watson, W., Bowlin, N.M., Sheavly, S.B., 2011. Plastic particles in coastal pelagic ecosystems of the Northeast Pacific ocean. Marine Environmental Research 71, 41–52. Gregory, M.R., 2009. Environmental implications of plastic debris in marine settings: entanglement, ingestion, smothering, hangers-on, hitch-hiking and alien invasions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364, 2013–2025. Mato, Y., Isobe, T., Takada, H., Kanehiro, H., Ohtake, C. and Kaminuma, T. 2001. Plastic Resin Pellets as a Transport Medium for Toxic Chemicals in the Marine Environment. Environmental Science & Technology 35 (2), 318–324.

<p>WASP (Windrows AS Proxies) is a data processor, developed in the frame of the European Space Agency (ESA) OSIP Campaign, exploiting Copernicus Sentinel-2 L1C images to detect and catalogue the presence of filaments of floating marine debris with high probability of containing man-made litter. WASP takes advantage of the prototype EO data processor developed in the frame of ESA project  “Earth Observation (EO) Track for Marine Litter (ML) in the Mediterranean Sea” that successfully proved for first time that Copernicus Sentinel-2 data can detect the presence of marine litter accumulations as proxies of plastic litter content.</p><p>WASP puts significant effort in masking unneeded data that has been source of false-positive detections, including sun glint and clouds. Also, a new spectral analysis technique has been employed to identify the most promising Copernicus Sentinel-2 bands to be used in the detection of such filaments, which has also led to the construction of a novel spectral index WASP Spectral Index (WSI). This index enables the detection of filaments of floating debris.</p><p>The images processed using WSI are transformed into binary masks to be analysed by a deterministic object classifier, which looks at the geometry and shapes of the detections to identify ML windrows within them and separate them from background noise and/or false positives. This enables automatic processing and classification of the images, which makes possible to generate regional and/or local databases of remote-sensed floating debris, which can be exploited by means of geostatistics to support research and monitoring of marine litter in the environment.</p><p>These implementations are also supported with the introduction of advanced super-resolution techniques that are downscaling the spatial resolution of the bands to 10m, well beyond the simple interpolation, yielding better quality on the results.</p><p>In a preliminary assessment, the implemented proposed algorithm has proven to be successful in identifying windrows even when those are too thin to be visible in True Colour images by the naked eye. Nevertheless, some drawbacks/limitations have been found, principally associated to residual limitations when removing bad data, and with the special case of the problematic wave glint, well known in the Sentinel-2 data but of difficult solution.</p><p>Once the entire Sentinel-2 archive over the Mediterranean Sea is processed and following an in-depth analysis, a database of the identified proxies, including spatial and temporal patterns will be created over this initial region. The final EO product will be a map of on sub-mesoscale marine debris concentrations in the Mediterranean Sea based on Copernicus Sentinel-2. The product will consist on a census of these structures for each processed tile for the Mediterranean Sea, with potential for global scalability. Scientific research, cleaning activities and policy making on marine litter are only a few of the activities that could benefit from such a product.</p><p>This activity collaborates on the “Remote Sensing of Marine Litter and Debris” IOCCG taskforce.</p>

Highlight Research:The potential calorific value of marine debris obtained from calculating the total waste is 12.05 MJ/kg, which still falls within the incinerator application's standard criteria. AbstractMarine debris, a global environmental issue today, is a major threat to Bali’s seas which are famous for its natural beauty and aggravated by the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to determine the characteristics of marine debris in Bali Island, especially in the southern region and to analyze the feasibility of incineration as one of the waste treatment processes. This research was conducted by utilizing secondary data and literature reviews from related previous studies. Water content and caloric value were measured directly using the ASTM E 790-15 and ASTM D 5865-11a standards. Marine debris generation from 2013 to 2019 tends to decrease from 1.22 kg/km.day to 0.46 kg/km.day. Organic waste (59.4%) comprised the largest marine debris followed by plastic waste (13.4%) and diapers (11.9%). Thermal technology such as incineration can be introduced to treat marine debris. The standard application of incinerator technology is moisture content and caloric value. The water content of marine debris is reportedly 54.56%, therefore, further preliminary processing is needed, especially for waste with high moisture content, such as diapers and organic waste. The potential calorific value of marine debris during the COVID-19 pandemic obtained from calculating the total waste was 12.05 MJ/kg which still did not meet the incinerator application's standard criteria.