Search

Plastic waste at the coastal wetland in Martil beach in the North-East of Morocco is one of the problems that have appeared recently. This study aims to characterize the marine debris in the coast of Martil during the year 2015. The sampling is seasonally by type and size. The result shows, for the macro debris, the abundance of plastic (57%), lumber and paper (21.93%), cloth and fabric (7.8%), glass (5.42%), metal (4.40%), and rubber (3.4%). Micro debris is also present in the area in several forms such as wood, plants, and others by 75,63%. This was followed by the foam (26,95%), line (7,8%), and the film (1,23%). The seasonal variation (S1: January–March and S3: July to September) are the most polluted months of the year. The sources of marine debris are mainly tourism (beach users), land (run off), and commercial fishing in the four seasons of the year.

Marine debris is a burgeoning global issue with economic, ecological and aesthetic impacts. While there are many studies now addressing this topic, the influence of urbanisation factors such as local population density, stormwater drains and roads on the distribution of coastal litter remains poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we carried out standardized surveys at 224 transect surveys at 67 sites in two estuaries and along the open coast in Tasmania, Australia. We explored the relative support for three hypotheses regarding the sources of the debris; direct deposition by beachgoers, transport from surrounding areas via storm water drains and coastal runoff, and onshore transport from the marine system. We found strong support for all three mechanisms, however, onshore transport from the marine reservoir was the most important mechanism. Overall, the three models together explained 45.8 percent of the variation in our observations. Our results also suggest that most debris released into the marine environment is deposited locally, which may be the answer to where all the missing plastic is in the ocean. Furthermore, local interventions are likely to be most effective in reducing land-based inputs into the ocean.

A field measurement and computer modeling effort was made to assess the dilution field of pulped waste materials discharged into the wake of a US Navy frigate. Pulped paper and fluorescein dye were discharged from the frigate’s pulper at known rates. The subsequent particle and dye concentration field was then measured throughout the wake by a following vessel using multiple independent measures. Minimum dilution of the pulped paper reached 3.2 × 105 within 1900 m behind the frigate, or about 8 min after discharge. Independent measures typically agreed within 25% of one another and within 20% of model predictions. Minimum dilution of dye reached 2.3 × 105 at a down-wake distance of approximately 3500 m, or roughly 15 min. Comparison to model measurements were again within 20%. The field test was not only successful at characterizing wake dilution under one set of at-sea conditions, but was successful at validating the computer model used for assessing a wide range of ships and conditions.

The question of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bioavailability and its relationship to specific PAH sources with different PAH binding characteristics is an important one, because bioavailability drives PAH accumulation in biota and ultimately the biochemical responses to the PAH contaminants. The industrial harbour at Kitimat (British Columbia, Canada) provides an ideal location to study the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of sediment hydrocarbons to low trophic level biota. Samples of soft shell clams (Mya arenaria) and intertidal sediment collected from multiple sites over six years at various distances from an aluminium smelter and a pulp and paper mill were analysed for 106 PAHs, plant diterpenes and other aromatic fraction hydrocarbons. Interpretation using PAH source ratios and multivariate data analysis reveals six principal hydrocarbon sources: PAHs in coke, pitch and emissions from anode combustion from the aluminium smelter, vascular plant terpenes and aromatised terpenes from the pulp and paper mill, petroleum PAHs from shipping and other anthropogenic activities and PAHs from natural plant detritus. Harbour sediments predominantly contain either pitch or pyrogenic PAHs from the smelter, while clams predominantly contain plant derived PAHs and diterpenes from the adjacent pulp mill. PAHs from the smelter have low bioavailability to clams (Biota-Sediment Accumulation Factors; BSAFs1 for pitch and coke;10 for anode combustion, decreasing to ∼0.1 for the mass 300 and 302 PAHs), possibly due to binding to pitch or soot carbon matrices. Decreases in PAH isomer ratios between sediments and clams likely reflect a combination of variation in uptake kinetics of petroleum PAHs and compound specific metabolism, with the importance of petroleum PAHs decreasing with increasing molecular weight. Plant derived compounds exhibit little natural bioaccumulation at reference sites, but unsaturated and aromatised diterpenes released from resins by industrial pulping processes are readily accumulated by the clams (BSAFs500). Thus while most of the smelter associated PAHs in sediments may not be bioavailable to benthic organisms, the plant terpenes (including retene, totarol, ferruginol, manool, dehydroabietane and other plant terpenes that form the chemical defence mechanism of conifers) released by pulp mills are bioavailable and possess demonstrated toxic properties. The large scale release of plant terpenes by some of the many pulp mills located in British Columbia and elsewhere represents a largely undocumented risk to aquatic biota.

The toxicity of intact sediments and sediment extracts, from both an uncontaminated site and a site contaminated by pulp-mill effluents, was tested in a five months study. The deposit-feeding amphipod Monoporeia affinis was exposed in soft-bottom flow-through water microcosms. To examine potential toxicity a set of reproduction endpoints was used including fecundity and different embryo aberrations such as malformed eggs. Among extracts, the aliphatic/monoaromatic and diaromatic fractions along with the total extract were shown to cause the highest toxicity measured as malformed eggs, while the polyaromatic fraction caused toxicity at background levels. A comparison between sediment extracts and pulp mill contaminated intact sediment, however, showed no toxicity of the intact sediment. Thus, the extraction procedure seems to increase bioavailability and subsequently toxicity as compared to the intact sediments in situ. In toxicity testing using fractionated extracts of sediments in a toxicity identification evaluation (TIE) procedures, caution should therefore be taken when assessing bioavailable contaminants in contaminated areas. This should be taken in account both in determining remediation priorities as well as in ecological risk assessments.

Blubber of harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) sampled from the Strait of Georgia, BC, in 1991 and 1992 contained higher concentrations of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans (PCDD/F) than did samples from Quatsino Sound on western Vancouver Island. The higher proportions of 1,2,3,6,7,8-hexachlorodibenzodioxin and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzofuran in the Strait of Georgia samples probably reflect contamination arising from the discharge of effluents from bleached kraft mills. Higher concentrations of non-ortho- and mono-ortho substituted polychlorinated biphenyls were also found in the Strait of Georgia samples, probably as a result of general industrial activity in the region. Principal components analysis showed that residues were distributed differently between males and females. Within males, concentrations of PCDD, PCDF and PCBs appeared to increase with age. Toxic equivalents (TEQ) to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin in the Quatsino Sd. samples were close to the working guidelines for edible fish used by Health Canada; TEQ calculated for the Strait of Georgia samples exceeded these guidelines by up to a factor of five.