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

CleanAtlantic is an INTERREG Atlantic Area Programme project that aimed at protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Area by improving capabilities to monitor, prevent and remove (macro) marine litter. Besides, the project also contributed to raise awareness and change attitudes among stakeholders and to improve marine litter managing systems. To achieve these aims, the work was organised in 8 work packages. 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 the marine litter status in the Atlantic Area: beach, floating and seabed litter

CleanAtlantic is an INTERREG Atlantic Area Programme project that aimed at protecting biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Area by improving capabilities to monitor, prevent and remove (macro) marine litter. Besides, the project also contributed to raise awareness and change attitudes among stakeholders and to improve marine litter managing systems. To achieve these aims, the work was organised in 8 work packages. 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

Toward the integrated marine debris observing system

Plastics and other artificial materials pose new risks to the health of the ocean. Anthropogenic debris travels across large distances and is ubiquitous in the water and on shorelines, yet, observations of its sources, composition, pathways, and distributions in the ocean are very sparse and inaccurate. Total amounts of plastics and other man-made debris in the ocean and on the shore, temporal trends in these amounts under exponentially increasing production, as well as degradation processes, vertical fluxes, and time scales are largely unknown. Present ocean circulation models are not able to accurately simulate drift of debris because of its complex hydrodynamics. In this paper we discuss the structure of the future integrated marine debris observing system (IMDOS) that is required to provide long-term monitoring of the state of this anthropogenic pollution and support operational activities to mitigate impacts on the ecosystem and on the safety of maritime activity. The proposed observing system integrates remote sensing and in situ observations. Also, models are used to optimize the design of the system and, in turn, they will be gradually improved using the products of the system. Remote sensing technologies will provide spatially coherent coverage and consistent surveying time series at local to global scale. Optical sensors, including high-resolution imaging, multi- and hyperspectral, fluorescence, and Raman technologies, as well as SAR will be used to measure different types of debris. They will be implemented in a variety of platforms, from hand-held tools to ship-, buoy-, aircraft-, and satellite-based sensors. A network of in situ observations, including reports from volunteers, citizen scientists and ships of opportunity, will be developed to provide data for calibration/validation of remote sensors and to monitor the spread of plastic pollution and other marine debris. IMDOS will interact with other observing systems monitoring physical, chemical, and biological processes in the ocean and on shorelines as well as the state of the ecosystem, maritime activities and safety, drift of sea ice, etc. The synthesized data will support innovative multi-disciplinary research and serve a diverse community of users

Science policy brief. Future research needs to implement the MSFD

This document outlines the results of a broad stakeholder consultation process carried out by the STAGES project to identify the needs for further research to improve the scientific underpinning for the implementation of the MSFD, i.e. to improve the scientific answers to the following key questions: • What are the key pressures on marine environments? • What are the impacts on marine ecosystems and services resulting from these pressures? • Where are the main accumulations of impacts and major needs for response identified? • How should the interactions between ecosystems and socio-economic activities be addressed

CleanAtlantic. Lutte contre les déchets marins dans l'espace altantique

Qu'ont en commun les cotons-tiges, les contenants alimentaires et les sacs à provisions? Ce sont tous des exemples typiques de déchets marins ! – Demandez-le à n'importe lequel des 300 élèves des régions participantes qui ont réalisé des collectes de déchets marins pour le projet CleanAtlantic dont l’objectif est de prévoir, surveiller et réduire cette pollution sur la côte Atlantique. Ce projet met en relation des scientifiques, des communautés de pêcheurs, des décideurs et des citoyens français, espagnols, portugais, irlandais ou anglais, qui font fait preuve d'un grand enthousiasme, crucial, afin de changer les comportements – et donc les apports de déchets dans l’océan ! Les travaux de ce projet portent sur la réalisation de cartes interactives montrant un état des connaissances actuelles de la présence des déchets dans les différents compartiments du milieu marin : littoral, fond et surface ; ainsi qu’un état des lieux des initiatives mises en oeuvre par les décideurs des régions impliquées. Afin de contribuer à améliorer les connaissances et les méthodes de surveillance, de nouvelles technologies (drones) et de nouveaux protocoles sont en tests. De nouvelles applications et bases de données harmonisées sont en cours de création. Enfin, des modèles prédictifs de déplacement des déchets marins permettront de pouvoir cibler les actions à mener

Compte -rendu de la réunion « ERIKA - IFREMER» du 29/03/01

Cette réunion avait pour objet de réunir les chercheurs de l'IFREMER ayant un projet dans le programme de « suivi des conséquences écologiques et écotoxicologiques dues au naufrage de l'ERIKA », mis en place par le Ministère de l'Aménagement du Territoire et de l'environnement. Elle a été l'occasion de faire le point sur les sites toujours en cours de prélèvements et sur des études qui ont été réalisées suite à la marée noire, indépendamment du programme de « suivi »

Consignes de saisie des données microdéchets flottants dans l'application DALI

L’application DAta LItter a été développée afin de bancariser dans la Base de Données Q², les données liées aux programmes de surveillance mis en œuvre dans le cadre du Descripteur 10 – Déchets marins - de la Directive Cadre Stratégie Marine (D10C1, D10C2, D10C3 et D10C4). Afin d’accompagner la saisie des données, des consignes de saisie sont mises à disposition des utilisateurs. Ce document porte sur les consignes de saisie dans le cadre du Programme de surveillance lié au D10C2 – micro-déchets flottants