Monitoring of Floating Marine Macro Litter
State of the art and literature overview
Marine litter is a recognised and major aspect of marine pollution, posing a direct threat to marine organisms and raising a global concern for its environmental and economic implications. FMML is the portion of marine litter comprising items larger than 2.5 cm that float in the surface layers of the water and is considered a pertinent direct indicator of the pressure exerted by litter on marine ecosystems.
Indeed, being the mobile fraction of marine litter, FMML can provide indications of the sources, sinks and pathways of litter in the marine environment, and allows the assessment of the effects of prevention measures. The assessment of FMML is considered by the MSFD, regional frameworks and the UN.
To this end, several methodologies have been proposed and tested across the globe for monitoring FMML. However, to guarantee that data collected within the monitoring programmes are representative and consistent, and to allow the assessment of trends and thus the evaluation of the effectiveness of mitigation measures, commonly agreed protocols for data collection and management need to be implemented. This report has been developed by the MSFD TG ML to update the FMML monitoring guidance and support EU MS in the implementation of monitoring programmes. The report provides a summary of options for FMML monitoring retrieved from a review of scientific literature and research projects developed for this purpose. It details the scientific and technical background that was used for specific guidelines for FMML monitoring.
VIGHI Morgana;
RUIZ OREJON SANCHEZ PASTOR Luis;
HANKE Georg;
2022-08-08
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC129261
978-92-76-52436-6 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 31073 EN,
OP KJ-NA-31073-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC129261,
10.2760/78914 (online),
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