The distribution, abundance and characteristics of plastic debris along the Coast of Grândola, Portugal

Abstract

Coastal clean-up campaign on the coast of Grândola is an annual practice organized by the non-governmental Portuguese organization, Brigada do Mar. With the objective of developing the marine litter monitoring on the Portuguese coast, the Portuguese Marine Litter Association participated in the project with the aim of collecting primary data about the state of coastal marine litter pollution on the coast of Grândola. A close collaboration between the Grândola Municipality, Brigada do Mar and the Portuguese Marine Litter Association was set up, in order to gather information about marine litter in the coastal area of the region. The coast of Grândola was surveyed in five sampling areas along the coastline. The survey includes numbers, characteristics and abundance data. Plastic, making up 94,24 % of the registered marine litter, is a predominant material type in the marine litter of Grândola. The quantity of marine litter items differs between the sampling areas. The highest number of items (1000) were collected near the small village of Comporta. Among the microplastics, small broken plastic pieces are the most widespread. This study is important, not only to survey the current state of the marine litter on the coast, but also to promote awareness in the society and provide information for the institutes and local government.