Cetacean sightings within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Here, we report cetacean sightings made within a major oceanic accumulation zone for plastics, often referred to as the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ (GPGP). These cetacean records occurred in October 2016 and were made by sensors and trained observers aboard a Hercules C-130 aircraft surveying the GPGP at 400 m height and 140 knots speed. Four sperm whales (including a mother and calf pair), three beaked whales, two baleen whales, and at least five other cetaceans were observed. Many surface drifting plastics were also detected, including fishing nets, ropes, floats and fragmented debris. Some of these objects were close to the sighted mammals, posing entanglement and ingestion risks to animals using the GPGP as a migration corridor or core habitat. Our study demonstrates the potential exposure of several cetacean species to the high levels of plastic pollution in the area. Further research is required to evaluate the potential effects of the GPGP on marine mammal populations inhabiting the North Pacific

Plastic Pollution

The presence, at sea, of large amounts of plastic and microplastics, which are sometimes invisible and results from the fragmentation of larger debris, requires an in-depth knowledge of the nature of ocean debris, its transport mechanisms, life cycle and effects on the environment. This volume provides new insights in the topic of plastic pollution, an actual and important problem for the marine environment

Supplementary data for 'Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic'

<p>Here we provide four .xls files containing data associated with the manuscript 'Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating more plastic' published in Scientific Reports by Lebreton et al (2018). </p><p><br></p><p>Lebreton <i>et al</i>. Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic. <i>Scientific Reports </i>8,<i> </i>4666 (2018)</p><p><br></p><p>Below are brief descriptions of each file:</p><p></p><p><b><br></b></p><p><b>Lebreton2018_Concentration.xls</b></p><p>Summary data containing ocean plastics concentrations as presented in Figure 3 (b,c,d,e) of the main manuscript. We provide midpoint, lower and higher estimated numerical and mass concentrations, as well as raw data (i.e. not corrected for vertical mixing) for each sampling event and for microplastics (0.05-0.5 cm), mesoplastics (0.5-5 cm), macroplastics (5-50 cm) and megaplastics (> 50 cm).</p><p><br></p><p></p><p><b>Lebreton2018_SamplingInformation.xls</b></p><p>This file contains the raw data used to estimate the ocean plastic concentrations reported in Lebreton2018_Concentration.xls. The first tab contains information for all sampling events of this study, including location, date, sampling method (i.e. Manta net tow, Mega net tow, or RGB mosaic), sampled surface area and weather conditions. The 'TrawlDebrisInfo' tab provides the number and mass of debris found in the contents collected by each net tow, while the 'MosaicDebrisInfo' tab contains information related to every ocean plastic identified in the aerial RGB mosaics. This file also provides: (1) the ocean plastic rising velocities used to estimate 'vertically integrated’ ocean plastic concentrations, and (2) the ocean plastic top view surface area x dry weight measurements used to estimate the mass of debris sighted in the RGB mosaics.</p><p><br></p><p></p><p><b>Lebreton2018_Characterisation.xls</b></p><p>This file includes classification of ocean plastic pieces into object types, as well as polymer types by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) analysis. It also contains the production dates, languages and countries of production identified on ocean plastics examined during this study.</p><p><br></p><p></p><p><b>Lebreton2018_HistoricalDataset.xls</b></p><p>Historical data on microplastic concentrations as measured by surface net tows conduced within and around the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Individual sampling stations are indexed as 'within’ (1) or ‘outside' (0) the GPGP boundary predicted by the numerical model presented in the study.</p

Facial photos of sea turtles (Arvoredo Island, Brazil, 2005-2008)

<p>This fileset contains 297 photos (.jpg) of sea turtle facial profiles (left and right side). It is particularly useful for those developing softwares for sea turtle photo-id.</p> <p>It was used for the first time in<em> Reisser J, Proietti M, Kinas P, Sazima I (2008) Photographic identification of sea turtles: method description and validation, with an estimation of tag loss. Endang Species Res 5:73-82 doi: 10.3354/esr00113</em></p> <p>Photos are named as "capture number _ facial side photographed" (e.g. 132_r corresponds to the photo of the right facial profile of an individual captured in the capture event number 132).</p> <p>Some individuals were captured more than once so they have more than 1 capture event associated with them. It means that <strong>recaptured individuals were photographed more than once</strong>. This is particularly useful for sea turtle photo-ID software validation.</p> <p>This fileset has the following matches of sea turtle facial profiles (photos of the same side of the same individual):</p> <p>1. 1_r & 80_r</p> <p>2. 3_l & 15_l</p> <p>3. 4_l & 78_l</p> <p>4. 8_r & 35_r</p> <p>5. 17_r & 118_r</p> <p>6. 17_l & 118_l</p> <p>7. 22_r & 77_r</p> <p>8. 22_l & 77_l</p> <p>9. 25_l & 122_l</p> <p>10. 25_r & 122_r</p> <p>11. 31_l & 60_l & 94_l</p> <p>12. 31_r & 60_r & 94_r</p> <p>13. 37_l & 59_l & 112_l & 126_l</p> <p>14. 37_r & 59_r & 112_r & 126_r</p> <p>15. 39_l & 44_l</p> <p>16. 39_r & 44_r</p> <p>17. 48_l & 119_l</p> <p>18. 48_r & 119_r</p> <p>19. 81_l & 125_l</p> <p>20. 81_r & 125_r</p> <p>21. 82_l & 99_l</p> <p>22. 111_l & 124_l</p> <p>23. 111_r & 124_r</p> <p>24. 115_l & 127_l</p> <p>25. 115_r & 127_r</p> <p>26. 62_l & 97_l</p> <p>27. 62_r & 97_r</p> <p>If you have any comments or questions please contact us at [email protected]</p

Supplementary data for 'River plastic emissions to the world's oceans'

<p>Plastics in the marine environment have become a major concern because of their persistence at sea, and adverse consequences to marine life and potentially human health. Implementing mitigation strategies requires an understanding and quantification of marine plastic sources, taking spatial and temporal variability into account. Here we present a global model of plastic inputs from rivers into oceans based on waste management, population density and hydrological information. Our model is calibrated against measurements available in the literature. We estimate that between 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic waste currently enters the ocean every year from rivers, with over 74% of emissions occurring between May and October. The top 20 polluting rivers, mostly located in Asia, account for 67% of the global total. The findings of this study provide baseline data for ocean plastic mass balance exercises, and assist in prioritizing future plastic debris monitoring and mitigation strategies.</p><p>Modelled plastic inputs into the ocean from rivers worldwide.</p><p>The shapefile contains 40,760 river input locations (EPSG:4326, WGS 84) with the following attributes:</p><p><b>i_<i>level</i></b>: plastic input in tonnes per year. (<i>level=low, mid or high for lower, midpoint and upper estimates</i>)</p><p><b>i_<i>level</i>_<i>month</i></b>: plastic input in tonnes per month. (<i>level=low,mid,high; month=jan,feb,...,dec</i>)</p><p><b>runoff_</b><i><b>month</b></i>: monthly averaged runoff in catchment in mm per day. (<i>month=jan,feb,...,dec</i>)</p><p><b>mpw</b>: mismanaged plastic waste production in catchment in kg per year. </p><p><b>area</b>: catchment area in square meters.</p><p><br></p

Foraging by Immature Hawksbill Sea Turtles at Brazilian Islands

Submitted by Marcela Polino ([email protected]) on 2016-01-19T21:03:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Proietti_2012_2.pdf: 993808 bytes, checksum: cf8f2b912c8c6651cd9cf4981bd4f53a (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Lilian M. Silva ([email protected]) on 2016-01-20T11:59:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Proietti_2012_2.pdf: 993808 bytes, checksum: cf8f2b912c8c6651cd9cf4981bd4f53a (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-20T11:59:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Proietti_2012_2.pdf: 993808 bytes, checksum: cf8f2b912c8c6651cd9cf4981bd4f53a (MD5) Previous issue date: 201

Ingestion of plastics at sea: does debris size really matter?

Submitted by Marcela Polino ([email protected]) on 2016-01-19T16:33:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 fmars-01-00070.pdf: 1375867 bytes, checksum: 672b445cb153f8b2a392df6089e7c815 (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Lilian M. Silva ([email protected]) on 2016-01-19T19:12:20Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 fmars-01-00070.pdf: 1375867 bytes, checksum: 672b445cb153f8b2a392df6089e7c815 (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-19T19:12:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 fmars-01-00070.pdf: 1375867 bytes, checksum: 672b445cb153f8b2a392df6089e7c815 (MD5) Previous issue date: 201

Data from: Marine plastic pollution in waters around Australia: characteristics, concentrations, and pathways

Plastics represent the vast majority of human-made debris present in the oceans. However, their characteristics, accumulation zones, and transport pathways are still poorly assessed. We characterised and estimated the concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia using surface net tows, and inferred their potential pathways using particle-tracking models and real drifter trajectories. The 839 marine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments (“microplastics”, median length = 2.8 mm, mean length = 4.9 mm) resulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and polypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items). Mean sea surface plastic concentration was 4256.4 pieces km-2, and after incorporating the effect of vertical wind mixing, this value increased to 8966.3 pieces km-2. These plastics appear to be associated with a wide range of ocean currents that connect the sampled sites to their international and domestic sources, including populated areas of Australia’s east coast. This study shows that plastic contamination levels in surface waters of Australia are similar to those in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Maine, but considerably lower than those found in the subtropical gyres and Mediterranean Sea. Microplastics such as the ones described here have the potential to affect organisms ranging from megafauna to small fish and zooplankton

Plastic Debris in the North-west Marine Region, Australia

<p>This fileset reports sea surface plastic concentrations (pieces per km^2) at nine locations (net stations) sampled aboard RV Solander (Trip 5866 - September, 2013).</p> <p>If you have any comments or questions, contact us at [email protected]</p