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Identification of initiatives, measures and actions to reduce marine litter in the Atlantic area and valorisation in an interactive platform.

Responsible Partner: CEDRE
Date:  June 2023
Download: Link to report
Description: As part of the Interreg CleanAtlantic project, Cedre has undertaken to produce an inventory of initiatives, measures and actions (IMAs) designed to reduce the presence of marine litter in the Atlantic Area (AA). To this end, Cedre launched in 2018 an online survey, with the help of CleanAtlantic partners, identifying 391 IMAs.  In 2022, as part of CleanAtlantic project extension, the survey was launched again in the 5 AA countries in order to make an update of the IMA inventory. A total of 90 new initiatives were identified as a result of the new survey dissemination. In parallel, the interactive platform developed to promote these initiatives was improved and uptaded with the new IMAs identified. This report presents the updating work conducted on the IMA identification and the plateform as part of the CleanAtlantic project extension.

Identification of the initiatives, measures and actions to reduce the presence of litter in the marine environment

Responsible Partner: CEDRE
Date:  October 2021
Download: Link to report
Description: As part of the Interreg CleanAtlantic project, Cedre has undertaken to produce an inventory of initiatives, measures and actions (IMAs) designed to reduce the presence of marine litter in the Atlantic Area (AA). This report presents main results of the online survey launched by Cedre in 2018 to this end, the data cleaning work, the new restructuring IMAs database and the different categories describing them. In addition to the inventory, a work of valorisation of all the initiatives has been done. An interactive online platform has been developed to showcase and facilitate dissemination of IMAs identified in the AA. In addition, a limited selection of the most interesting or innovative IMAs is proposed in the present report.

Pilot action to investigate the presence of seafloor litter in the Ria of Vigo by using a modified trawling fishing gear coupled with of a video recording system

Responsible Partner: CETMAR
Date: September 2021
Download: link
Description: The objective of this pilot action was to investigate the presence of seafloor litter in the Ria de Vigo by using a modified trawling fishing gear specifically developed to retrieve seafloor litter avoiding the capture of marine organisms. Moreover, the applicability of a low-cost filming system coupled to the gear was also tested in terms of recording the entrance of residues and the escape of fish species. Here we describe the equipment, the operational conditions and the collaborations established with sea professionals to carry out the sampling and removal of residues, the protocol employed to characterize the retrieved marine litter and the main results achieved. A video was also produced in order to illustrate the pilot action and for awareness raising purposes.

Spatial and temporal variability in floating litter in North Sea / English Channel and Bay of Biscay / Celtic Sea 2015-2020

Responsible Partner: Ifremer
Date:  December 2021
Download: Link to report
Description: Study on the spatial and temporal variability of floating litter in the North Sea / English Channel and Bay of Biscay / Celtic Sea, based on data collected from the implementation of the monitoring program of macro marine-litter in the French Atlantic area in 2015 untill 2020.

Development of sustainable tools (Database and software) for Marine Litter Data management

Responsible Partner: Ifremer
Date: Diciembre 2021
Download: Link 
Description: Report describing the development of a database and specific software for the Marine Litter Data management.

Overview of the marine litter status in the Atlantic Area: beach, floating and seabed litter

Responsible Partner: IEO
Date:  December 2021
Download: Link to report
Description:  The present deliverable aims at synthesizing the main results obtained on the frame of the action 1 of work package 4, which focused on the Regional characterisation of marine litter in the Atlantic Area. With this purpose, an overview of marine litter status in beach, floating and seabed compartments in the Atlantic Area is presented. Additionally, the major key findings, gaps on monitoring and research as well as potential improvements and recommendations are identified. Links to the complete dedicated reports for each compartment are included in the references section. Also, an interactive map for spatial visualization of data on beach, floating and seabed litter composition and abundance in the Atlantic Area was created and is presented at the end of this report.

Overview of the marine litter status in the Atlantic Area: floating litter

Responsible Partner: IEO
Date:  Diciembre 2021
Download: Link to report
Description: The present deliverable aims at synthesizing the main results achieved on the frame of the action 1 of work package 4, which focused on the Regional characterisation of marine litter in the Atlantic Area. More specifically, this report deals with the assessment of the floating litter data available in this area. Additionally, the major key findings, gaps on monitoring and research as well as potential improvements and recommendations are identified.

Overview of marine litter status in the Atlantic Area: beach litter

Responsible Partner: CEDRE
Date: 30/09/2020 
Download: File
Description: This report presents a characterisation of beach litter pollution along the Atlantic Area shoreline at different relevant geographical scales (beach level, country level, OSPAR region level and Atlantic Area level). Litter abundance, composition and trends is assessed over the time period 2016-2019. Results confirm beach litter is abundant in the Atlantic Area, indicating measures are needed to reduce pollution, especially plastics which represent the majority of litter observed. Finally, gaps hindering a precise assessment of beach litter pollutions are identified and some recommandations to overcome these gaps are proposed.

Assessment of seabed litter data recorded by scientific observers onboard fishing vessels

Responsible Partner: IEO
Date: Oct 2020
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Description: This report aims to assess information sampled by scientific observers on board fishing vessels to monitor marine litter, predominantly seabed litter.

Assessment between trawl gears baka and GOV for the study of seabed litter

Responsible Partner: IEO Vigo
Date: Nov 2020
Download: PDF and DATA
Description: This report aims to assess if there are differences on catchability of seabed litter between the two gears used on the ground fish surveys in the French and Spanish shelves. Baka is the gear used as a sampler in the demersal trawl surveys conducted by the Instituto Español de Oceanografía and the GOV (Grand Overture Vertical) is the standard gear used as a sampler in the ICES area in the demersal trawls surveys carried out by IFREMER and other research institutes in the North of Europe.

Microplastics Pollution and Regulation

Responsible Partner: IEO
Date:  October 2020
Download: Link to publication
Description: This book chapter presents the latest evidence of microplastics as a global threat, together with current knowledge gaps, the challenges associated with establishing a global monitoring system and what legislative framework might be needed for their control. The chapter also describes the complexity of this environmental problem, highlighting the key reasons for why regulation at the local, regional, and global levels is currently limited and discussing possible ways forward.

Microplastics in the Bay of Biscay: An overview

Responsible Partner: IEO Vigo
Date:  April 2020
Download: Link to publication
Description: This publication studies the abundance of Microplastics in the Bay of Biscay (BoB). It presents a critical overview compiling the research performed to date on the different water bodies, sediments and biota.

Seabed litter distribution in the high seas of the Flemish Pass area (NW Atlantic)

Responsible Partner: IEO Vigo
Date: March 2021 
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Description: Seabed litter of the Flemish Pass area (NW Atlantic Ocean) was analysed and described using data from the EU-Spain groundfish survey (2006-2017 period). This study presents baseline information on seabed litter in this area. The Flemish Pass is located in areas beyond national jurisdiction within the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization Regulatory Area Division 3L. A total of 1169 valid bottom trawl hauls were analysed (104-1478 m depth). Litter was found in 8.3% of the hauls, with mean densities of 1.4±0.2 items km–2 and 10.6±5.2 kg km–2. An increasing pattern with depth was found, the highest densities of seabed litter being identified in the deepest areas located in the Flemish Pass channel and down the northeastern flank of the Grand Bank. Fishing was found to be the main source of marine litter, and 61.9% of the hauls with litter presence showed litter included in the fisheries-related litter category. Whereas in most cases the litter was composed of small fragments of rope, in other cases it was composed of entire fishing gears such as traps. Plastics, metal and other anthropogenic litter were the next most abundant categories, accounting for 18.6%, 16.5% and 12.4% of the total, respectively.

Mariner Litter Viewer

Responsible Partner: IEO
Date: 2021 
Link: CleanAtlantic Viewer

 Description: The CleanAtlantic marine litter viewer is an interactive map that shows the results obtained in the assessment of the marine litter status in the Atlantic Area. In the map, the user can is able to select “Beach”, “Floating”, or “Seabed” and visualize the results associated to each individual compartment. This work was carried out by CEFAS, CEDRE, IEO and IFREMER in the frame of the CleanAtlantic project. The reports behind these data are available on the following link: https://www.cleanatlantic.eu/marine-litter-in-the-atlantic-area/