Simultaneous assessment of macro and micro marine litter pollution in different compartments in the central Adriatic Sea, central Mediterranean sea

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1 Simultaneous assessment of macro and micro marine litter pollution in different compartments in the central Adriatic Sea, central Mediterranean sea Andreja Palatinus, Manca Kovač Viršek, Mateja Grego, Oliver Bajt, Jasna Šiljič, Ana Hace, Monika Peterlin 6IMDC, San Diego, USA

2 PRESENTATION Where & Why What How Results

3 WHERE

4 WHERE

5 WHERE

6 WHY

7 GOALS Connect resarchers from different fields, institutes, countries Preliminary research on marine litter in the Central Adriatic Sea Combined data collection Use of non research boat to collect samples Use wind power to sail as often as possible ENJOY

8 RESEARCH GOALS Seasurface macrolitter analysis (floating litter) Seasurface microlitter analysis Seabed microlitter analysis Beach macrolitter analysis (beach litter) Marine mammals and turtles Underwater noise analysis

9 COLLABORATION

10 COLLABORATION Organization Country Role Nr of people Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia Marine Biology Station Piran (National Institute of Biology) Morigenos Slovenian Marine Mammal Society Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries Split Slovenia - Expedition Lead - Surface microplastic analysis (field + lab) - Surface macroplastic analysis - Beach plastic analysis Slovenia - Seabed microplastics analysis (lab analysis) Slovenia - Marine mammals and turtles observation - Organization of expedition Croatia - Surface microplastic analysis (field + lab) University of Split Croatia - Assistance to Expedition Lead - Seabed analysis (field) Aleš Škrjanec Slovenia - Skipper Sašo Turk Slovenia - Cook Equipment provided 3 Small Lab equipment, Data sheets, Binocular, Marine LitterWatch app, Laboratory equipment 0 Van Veen grab, laboratory equipment 1 Binocular 1 Manta net, laboratory equipment 1

11 BOAT Elan Impresion ,69 m 22,96 T (BT) Croatian owner Location Biograd na moru, Zadar 5 cabins

12 Agreed methodologies IPA ADRIATIC DEFISHGEAR project

13 Floating litter - methodology Visual observation Observation distance was 7 metres from the side of the boat; 2,2 m height of the boat Waves status 0-2 Beaufort Duration 30 mins Boat speed 2 3 knots Simoultaneously with manta net sampling

14 Floating litter - results 39,7 km inspected (277 km 2 ) 17 transects checked, 4 with no litter 49 marine litter items in total 95% plastic material Average density: 175 ± 181 items/km²

15 Floating litter - results Relative contribution of the floating litter category types for all 17 transects.

16 Beach litter - methodology Raising awareness activity (Island Opat) Clean up (11 kg in 15 min) 3 beaches surveyed with Marine LitterWatch application Pellets!! DEFISHGEAR Methodology in sync with TG Marine Litter Guidelines, Galgani et al. 2013

17 Beach litter - results items were collected, classified and removed Average density: items/100 m Artificial polymer materials reached >99% of all litter items

18 Marine litter on beaches - results

19 Seasurface microplastics - methodology DEFISHGEAR applied methodology Published in Journal of Visual Experiments (Kovač Viršek et al. 2016, Protocol for Microplastics Sampling on the Sea Surface and Sample Analysis) Manta net (300 µm mesh) aperture 16 x 60 cm, length 3 m 30 min, 2 3 knots Separation of microplastics using stereomicroscopes with polarization light Items categorized into 6 categories: fragments, filaments, films, foam, pellets and granules.

20 Seasurface microplastics - results 27 samples collected and analysed In total microplastics items were collected on 27 transects Average density: items/km²

21 Seasurface microplastics - results

22 Seabed microplastics - methodology First analysis in the Adriatic Sea Sampling by Van Veen grab Average depth: 59 m (115 m 5 m) Microplastics separation by density separation method (NaCl, 45µm sieve), followed by visual identification using binocular magnifier (first 2cm analysed; 100g dw separated) Particles categorized into 3 categories: filaments, fragments and films

23 Seabed microplastics - results 22 samples collected microplastics pieces found Average density: 36 items/ 100 g of dry sediment Filaments (of different colours) were the most abundant category, followed by plastic particles and films

24 Conclusions The first expedition in the Adriatic Sea where macro litter and microplastics were sampled simultaneously on the sea surface, sea floor and beaches. This study provided the results from the areas in the North and Middle Adriatic, where no marine litter studies were done before. Differences in methodologies among studies made comparison of the results with other studies from the Mediterranean region many times impossible. In the future the standardization of all methodologies is crucial and implementation of them in monitoring program of each Mediterranean country. Only on the basis of regular measurements of marine litter with the same methodology we could conclude which seas or regions are more or less contaminated by marine litter and observe trends.

25 Thank you for attention!