Summary: Marine litter presents now a global threat at different scales in the Ocean. A large diversity of marine life is being affected and all information available is currently relevant.
Objectives: Study the diversity, density and dispersion of coastal floating marine debries.
Methods & Data: Visual transect methodologies
Publications:
Auslander, M. 2018. Investigation on Floating Marine Litter in the Coastal Waters of the Azores, Including Observations on Associated Invertebrates. MSc Thesis. Rostock University.
Partners: MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre; University of the Azores; University of Lisbon; Regional Board of Maritime Affairs; IPLeiria - ESTM.
Timeline
2017
Initiation of Field surveys on Coastal Floating Marine Litter
2018
Master Thesis Concluded on Coastal Floating Marine Debries by May Britt Auslander https://www.atlanticnaturalist.org/post/mai-britt-msc-thesis
2019
Experimental App & Partnership with Regional Board of Maritime Affairs
First meeting with Regional Board of Maritime Affairs from the Regional Government of the Azores, for experimental smartphone app for floating marine litter data collection.
Data output should be used to achieve DQEM baseline information.
This collaboration has the support of the Telephone company Vodafone.
2020
Continuation of field surveys.
2021
Campanha "Atenção às Sacas de Ração" | Campaign "Atention to Feed bags"
PT|
Nos Açores, a agricultura e as pescas são importantes atividades económica e culturalmente, contribuindo ativamente para a existência de plástico em circulação.
Com base nos estudos da nossa equipa de investigação (dados de 2017 - 2021), verificou-se que o lixo predominante era:
- Lixo público (cerca de 27%) ex.: embalagens de cosméticos e garrafas de plástico;
- Lixo proveniente da atividade pesqueira (cerca de 24%) ex.: redes e bóias;
- Lixo proveniente de navios (9%) ex.: garrafas de vidro;
- Lixo proveniente de agricultura (4%) ex.: sacas de ração.
Sendo que o sector de agricultura não é comumente abordado, decidimos, este ano, focar o nosso trabalho de educação ambiental neste sector.
As sacas de ração aparecem no oceano a flutuar devido, principalmente, às correntes do mar e dos ventos. Portanto, é necessário encontrar soluções para combater este problema, como por exemplo:
- Após a utilização das sacas, colocá-las na reciclagem;
- Não deixe as sacas expostas ao ar livre;
- Alterar a composição do material de fabrico das sacas para um composto biodegradável.
A nossa equipa encontra-se no terreno a disseminar os resultados deste trabalho.
Nesta campanha tivemos a colaboração da estudante Maria João Fonseca que está a concluir o seu estágio em Biologia marinha e biotecnologia (IPL-ESTM).
Poderá fazer aqui o download do poster utilizado na nossa campanha.
ENG|
In the Azores, agriculture and fisheries are important economical and cultural activities, contributing actively to the presence of plastic.
According to the studies of our research team (data from 2017-2021), the marine litter comes from:
- Public litter (27%) ex.: cosmetic and water bottles;
- Fisheries (24%) ex.: nets and buoys;
- Ships (9%) ex.: glass bottles;
- Agriculture (4%) ex.: feed bags.
There is not a lot of attention directed to the agriculture sector, therefore this year we decided to focus our work on environmental education campaigns in the agriculture community.
The feed bags appear floating in the ocean, mainly due to ocean currents and wind.
There is a need to discover solutions to fight this problem, such as:
- Recycle the feed bags after their use;
- Do not leave the feed bags outdoor;
- Change the composition of the fabric material to biodegradable compost.
In this campaign, we had the student Maria João Fonseca doing an internship.
This campaign is supported by Naturalist, Science and Tourism.
You can download our campaign poster.
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