By Samantha Garrard, Senior Marine Ecosystem Services Researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Plastic has been found in every single part of the ocean, from the surface to the seafloor and from the tropics to the poles. Land-based sources of plastic account for the majority of this pollution, with plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, food containers and cutlery among […]
By Samantha Garrard, Senior Marine Ecosystem Services Researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. Plastic has been found in every single part of the ocean, from the surface to the seafloor and from the tropics to the poles. Land-based sources of plastic account for the majority of this pollution, with plastic bags, bottles, wrappers, food containers and cutlery among […]
Boat owners in the Dee Estuary are being invited to engage with plans to help tackle the issue of abandoned derelict vessels which are at risk of releasing harmful pollutants into the environment. Derelict and abandoned boats around the Welsh coast cause extensive problems in marine protected areas through issues such as loss of habitat […]
Thousands of pieces of plastic debris from all over the world have washed up on a remote South Atlantic island, according to conservationists. Litter found on the south-western coast of Ascension Island has been traced back to countries including China, Japan and South Africa, they say. The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) team […]
Two per cent of all fishing gear used worldwide ends up polluting the oceans, new research finds. To put that into perspective, the amount of longline fishing gear littering the ocean each year can circle the Earth more than 18 times. Researchers as CSIRO, the Australian government’s scientific research centre, found that 740,000km of […]
The Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland was first published in 2014 and serves to co-ordinate action on marine litter throughout the whole of Scotland. The updated Strategy will build on this positive work, with action planned on sewage-related debris, plastic pellets, and fishing and aquaculture gear. The Scottish Government has published the refreshed […]
The Marine Conservation Society is calling for volunteers across the UK to join them at the coast for a week of beach cleaning and litter surveying throughout the country in September, Oceanographic magazine reported. Last year, volunteers collected over five tonnes of litter, with an average of 3.85 items found for every metre of beach surveyed across the UK. “We wouldn’t […]
Funded by the PML internal research program and the European Space Agency the innovative study – titled “Detection and Classification of Floating Plastic Litter Using a Vessel-Mounted Video Camera and Deep Learning” – was carried out as part of an undergraduate placement project, with the results now published in the journal Remote Sensing The model […]