Litter in the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

In the Mediterranean Sea human activities generate considerable amounts of waste, and quantities are increasing, although they vary between countries. To support actions to be taken in order to minimize impacts on the marine environment, the European Commission included recently marine litter as one of the descriptor of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), establishing a framework within which Member States must take action to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status (GES). Beside, the Barcelona convention with its Regional Action is coordinating the monitoring of marine litter and support the implementation of reduction measures. As necessary steps, a better management will then need to (i) increase our knowledge and further development of data analysis in all regions, enabling to map areas at risk and sources, (ii) develop supporting tools for larger scale assessments, including harmonized databases, (iii) a better definition of thresholds, baselines and targets, to better understand harm and finally (iv) a coordinated monitoring. Research, supported by many institutions has then become critical and priorities include (i) a better definition of standardized/harmonized protocols, (ii) research on nanoparticles at sea, (iii) a better understanding of circulation and transport (iv) an increased knowledge of the ecology of microbial life on plastic and consequences on degradation, species dispersion and release of chemicals, and (v) a better understanding of the interactions between plastic and marine organisms. Using some examples, the process of the implementation of monitoring is described and discussed in the context of reduction measures.