MARLICE, the International Forum on Marine Litter and Circular Economy, was held in Seville on the past 10^th-12^th April, gathering public authorities, research institutes, private sector and environmental organizations. It was organised by AEBAM (The Spanish Marine Litter Association) and served as a platform for projects in the Atlantic and Mediterranean area promoting synergies between different sectors, countries and regions.

The Atlantic Sessions Block were organised by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, Surfrider Spain, and CETMAR. Globally, the programme was designed to portrait the status of marine litter in the Atlantic Area as well as highlight latest progress achieved around the monitoring and modelling of litter in marine, coastal, estuarine and river environments in this region. After the presentations of invited speakers, discussions with the audience were encouraged to eventually identify main challenges for the future.

CleanAtlantic collaborated in the organisation of the conference and led Session I of “Block 3:  Atlantic Region Sessions”, that took place on Thursday the 11th of April (see the agenda below). The project also contributed to Session II where Marisa Fernandez acted as cochairman, Garbiñe Ayensa from INTECMAR presented  “Looking for marine litter hotspots in shellfish growing areas”  and Ramiro Neves from IST presented “Modelling the fate of plastic debris in rivers and estuaries, the highway to the sea”.

Atlantic Region Session I: Project Session

CleanAtlantic led this session that showcased the latest advances on marine litter monitoring, modelling, and detection of hotspots. In connection with Session II, it provided technical context to further discuss how to link the Water Framework Directive (WFD) to the Marine Strategies, and to identify gaps and needs for further research. The session included presentations of different projects working in these issues such as Life LEMA, LitterDrone and CleanAtlantic.

Agenda

Chairperson: Marisa Fernández – CETMAR

Cochairperson: Vanessa Salvo – Surfrider Foundation Europe

11:30 – 11:45 INTRODUCTORY PART

“Welcome and presentation of the objectives of the Session” – Marisa Fernández – CETMAR

“CleanAtlantic at a glance” – Marisa Fernández – CETMAR

“Life LEMA at a glance” – Vanessa Salvo – Surfrider Foundation Europe

11:45 – 13:00 TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS

“Tools for at-sea litter monitoring” – Jesús Gago – Spanish Oceanographic Institute

“Enhancing Marine Litter detection and monitoring: applications of UAVs and object based imagery analysis” – Jesús Jiménez – ARDITI

“Marine litter modelling & hotspot mapping: Fate of plastic debris in the marine environment” – Ramiro Neves – University of Lisbon, MARETEC.

“Applicability of Drones for beach litter monitoring inside LitterDrone project” – Juan Pablo Pérez – Spanish Marine Litter Association, AEBAM.

“Floating marine litter in the SE Bay of Biscay and Life LEMA project” – Oihane Cabezas-Basurko – AZTI Research Center

“An operational Life LEMA tool for monitoring and management support of marine litter on near-shore” – Irene Ruiz – AZTI Research Center.

Open questions

Links to presentations will be provided in this article when they are available in the Conference website.