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Plastic debris detected on the sea bottom at the Mariana Trench (10,898 m, 11°21′N, 142°12′E) observed by ROV KAIKO on May 20th, 1998. The photo was downloaded from the JAMSTEC Deep-sea Debris Database (http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/dsdebris/e/).
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This study reports plastic debris pollution in the deep-sea based on the information from a recently developed database. The Global Oceanographic Data Center (GODAC) of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) launched the Deep-sea Debris Database for public use in March 2017. The database archives photographs and videos o...
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... total of 3425 anthropogenic debris items were detected in 5010 dive records, among which plastic was the most frequently observed category, accounting for 33% of all debris items, followed by metal (26%), rubber (1.8%), fishing gear (1.7%), glass (1.4%), cloth/paper/ lumber (1.3%), and and other anthropogenic items (35%). Of the plastic items, 89% were single-use products. The overall composition of debris resembled that of the western North Pacific (plastic: 33%) due to its large proportion of dive numbers (4552 out of 5010 dives). Plastic was also the most abundant category in the eastern North Pacific (25%), South Pacific (8%), and the Indian Ocean (31%), and single-use plastic accounted for 100% of the plastic debris in all three regions (Table 1, Fig. 1). Metal debris was most frequently observed in the North (41%) and South Atlantic (40%). Debris items were observed in areas deeper than 4000 m in the western and eastern North Pacific, South Pacific, and North Atlantic. The maximum depth record of plastic debris was a plastic bag at 10898 m in the Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific (Fig. 2). In terms of horizontal distribution, plastic debris as well as non-plastic debris reached the open sea over 1000 km off the coast (Fig. ...
Citations
... River alone can bring about 0.47-2.75 million tons of plastic wastes to the seas (Mani et al. 2019). In fact, Asian rivers were ranked among the top 20 of plastic-polluted rivers in the world (Lebreton et al. 2017), ultimately leading to the accumulation of plastic waste on the sea floor (Chiba et al. 2018;Nurlatifah et al. 2021). ...
Microplastics (MPs) distributions have been increasingly reported in the terrestrial areas worldwide, but little information is available for ASEAN regions. In this study, 68 sediment samples of drainage channels, lakes, rivers and beaches from Myanmar were collected between 2014 and 2018, and analyzed to investigate the status of MPs concentration and prevalence. The high concentrations of MPs in sediments were found in urban cities called Yangon (13,855 pieces/kg dry weight), Mandalay (11,946 pieces/kg), and Pathein (12,583 pieces/kg), which were two orders of magnitude greater than the MPs concentrations in sediments collected in rural towns called Wundwin. These results suggested that the difference in high population densities and high municipal solid waste generation rates are related to the MPs contamination in sediments. Polyethylene, polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate with fragments, lines/fibers and films/sheets were major polymers and shape in the sediment samples analyzed from Myanmar. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report the distribution of MPs in sediments from Myanmar.
... After the cruises and in the laboratory, the materials were washed with neutral soap and freshwater and dried naturally. Then, the items were sorted, identified, counted, weighed, and classified according to the following types of materials: concrete, glass, metal, plastic, textile, and other materials (modified from Cau et al., 2018;Chiba et al., 2018;Miliute-Plepiene et al., 2018). Objects classed as "other items" included ceramics, leather, paper, rubber, and nonidentified objects. ...
The presence of marine litter in the deep ocean (>200 m depth) may represent an invisible threat that has been neglected due to the scarcity of data. Herein, we provide the first report of persistent marine litter on the Southwestern Atlantic continental slope. Marine litter was collected onboard the Brazilian R/V Alpha Crucis, using bottom trawling, in 28 out of 31 sampled stations, between 274 and 1520 m depth, in two distinct areas off the southern Brazilian coast. In total, 603 items and 13.8 kg of litter were collected and classified according to the type of material. Plastic was the most frequent and most abundant material found. Although there was no bathymetric variation along the slope, density of litter was considerably higher off São Paulo than off Santa Catarina State, supposedly due to the heavier presence of oil and gas platforms and large cargo vessels.
... The uncontrolled use of synthetic polymers including plastic foils and bags since the 1940s has resulted in major pollution in many terrestrial habitats. Most of this debris is disposed of after single use [1]. In many developing countries in Africa, Asia and South America, the countryside around villages and cities is littered with plastic debris. ...
Plastic began to be manufactured on a commercial scale in the 1950s, and people saw its attractive properties as revolutionary. Plastic has proven to be a very attractive product because it is lightweight, water resistant, heat and electric insulating and extremely durable. It is also very cheap to make. The starting ingredient is the less commonly killed organic raw material of petroleum, natural gas, or plant material - an increasingly attractive option as the rage for fossil fuels grows. Consequently, plastic can remain for hundreds of years up to 400 years for its degradability in the environment (unless recycled or incinerated). More than a third of plastic is manufactured for single use, most of which is disposed of in the environment within one year of manufacture. In particular, about 8 million tons enter the oceans each year. The durable nature of plastic is remarkable because even though it is made of organic matter, living things cannot digest and break it - a stark contrast to the waste of food and paper. Plastic debris can be distinguished into macroplastics and microplastics. Furthermore, exposure to heat an solar UV radiation makes the fragments brittle so that they easily crumble producing secondary microplastics forming persistent organic pollutants. In addition, there is a sizable fraction of primary microplastics, e.g. microbeads. These pollutants are found in terrestrial and marine aquatic ecosystems and are considered a serious problem of high environmental impact.
... Sustainability 2023, 15, 15172 2 of 10 January 2022), provide data on submerged marine debris collected from deep-sea videos and photos taken during research surveys. However, most of the data on submerged debris have been collected in the Northern Hemisphere, and data on deep-sea debris for several regions of the world are spatially and temporarily still scarce [14]. In addition, most of the studies using databases on submerged marine debris in the sea have focused on the pollution assessment of the area where the survey was conducted. ...
The majority of marine debris is found in shallow waters; however, submerged debris accumulated at the sea bottom is affected by this kind of pollution. To mitigate the harmful effect of marine debris, we have to recognize its characteristics. However, it is hard to estimate the quantity of submerged marine debris because the monitoring of submerged marine debris requires greater cost and time compared to the monitoring of beach or coastal debris. In this study, we used the data for submerged marine debris surveyed in the sea near the Korean Peninsula from 2017 to 2020 and the data of fishing vessels passing through the areas from 2018 to 2020. In addition, the correlation of major factors affecting the amount of submerged marine debris was analyzed based on the fishing vessel data and the removal project data for submerged marine debris. Moreover, we estimated the amount of submerged marine debris based on the fishing vessels at the collection sites surveyed two or more times using a stepwise regression model. The average amount of submerged marine debris estimated by the model was 6.0 tonnes more than that by the removal project, for which the error was ~26.5% compared to the amount collected by the removal project. The estimation method for submerged marine debris developed in this study can provide crucial information for an effective collection project by suggesting areas that require a collection project for submerged marine debris based on the information of fishing vessels.
... Pollution by plastics is a worldwide concern, as problematic as climate change and invasive species (UNEP, 2014). Plastic pollution is ubiquitous in aquatic environments, ranging from shallow rivers to the deepest ocean basins (Chiba et al., 2018;Singh et al., 2021). ...
Pollution by plastics is a worldwide problem on par with climatic change and biological invasions. In coastal sediments, plastic particles tend to accumulate and persist over the long term. We assessed the plastic pollution using a standardized surface sediment sampling protocol on 22 sandy beaches along >4600 km of the Brazilian coast. The abundance, size, color, type, and polymeric composition of all meso- and microplastic items found in the surveys were processed to disclose spatial patterns of distribution and pollution associated drivers. A General Linear Model (GLM) was run to investigate how the predictor variables influenced overall beach plastic amounts and by plastic type and size class. Overall, 3114 plastic items were found, with microplastics comprising just over half of all items (54 %). Most items were either white (60 %) or blue (13 %), while polystyrene foam (45 %) and fragments (39 %) comprised the most abundant plastic types. The principal polymers were Polyethylene (40 %) and Polypropylene (32 %). The analyses indicated that the distribution of plastic litter along beaches is determined by three predictive variables: the distance to the nearest estuary (−), tourism (+), and the number of inhabitants in the nearest urban center (+). Tourist (highly-visited) beaches and those near estuarine runoffs or urban centers presented the highest plastic pollution rates. The unveiling of plastic pollution patterns through a large-scale systematic survey is essential for future management guidance and science-based decisions for mitigating and solving the plastic pollution crisis
... Furthermore, nearly 19 to 23 million tons of marine debris produced worldwide in 2016 entered aquatic habitats (Borrelle et al., 2020). Once debris enters the sea, it either floats or sinks, and can be transported to other areas by currents, washing up onto the shoreline and beaches ( Van der Mheen et al., 2020;Mghili et al., 2020;Behera et al., 2021;Bouzekry et al., 2022;Fruergaard et al., 2023), or drifting offshore (Lebreton et al., 2012) and sinking to the deepest ocean trench (Chiba et al., 2018). ...
Increasing amount of anthropogenic litter in the marine environment has provided an enormous number of substrates for a wide range of marine organisms, thus serving as a potential vector for the transport of fouling organisms. Here, we examined the fouling organisms on different types of stranded litter (plastic, glass, rubber, foam sponge, cloth, metal and wood) on eight beaches along the southeast coast of India. In total, 17 encrusting species belonging to seven phyla (Arthropoda, Bryozoa, Mollusca, Annelida, Cnidaria, Chlorophyta and Fora-minifera) were identified on 367 items, with one invasive species, the mussel Mytella strigata, detected. The most common species associated with marine litter were the cosmopolitan bryozoans Jellyella tuberculata (%O = 31.64 %) and J. eburnea (28.61 %), the barnacle species Lepas anserifera (29.97 %), Amphibalanus amphitrite (22.34 %) and Amphibalanus sp. (14.16 %), and the oyster species Saccostrea cucullata (13.62 %) and Magallana bilineata (5.44 %). We also reported the first records on stranded litter of four species: the gastropod species Pirenella cingulata and Umbonium vestiarium, the foraminiferan Ammonia beccarii, and the oyster M. bilineata. This study is thus the first documentation of marine litter as a vector for species dispersal in India, where the production and consumption of plastic rank among the highest in the world. We also highlight the increasing risk of invasions by non-indigenous organisms attached to debris along the southeast coast of India. Comprehensive monitoring efforts are thus needed to elucidate the type of vectors responsible for the arrival of invasive species in this region. Raising awareness and promoting education are vital components in fostering sustainable solutions to combat plastic pollution in the country and globally.
... T he global use of synthetic and fossil fuel-derived polymers on a multi-million-ton scale for over eight decades and the lack of concepts for recycling have led to an unprecedented accumulation of plastics of diverse sizes and blends in all ecological niches including the deep-ocean [1][2][3][4][5] . Plastic litter serves as a carrier for many microorganisms that can attach to their surface, constituting the so-called plastisphere [6][7][8] . ...
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a commodity polymer known to globally contaminate marine and terrestrial environments. Today, around 80 bacterial and fungal PET-active enzymes (PETases) are known, originating from four bacterial and two fungal phyla. In contrast, no archaeal enzyme had been identified to degrade PET. Here we report on the structural and biochemical characterization of PET46 (RLI42440.1), an archaeal promiscuous feruloyl esterase exhibiting degradation activity on semi-crystalline PET powder comparable to IsPETase and LCC (wildtypes), and higher activity on bis-, and mono-(2-hydroxyethyl) terephthalate (BHET and MHET). The enzyme, found by a sequence-based metagenome search, is derived from a non-cultivated, deep-sea Candidatus Bathyarchaeota archaeon. Biochemical characterization demonstrated that PET46 is a promiscuous, heat-adapted hydrolase. Its crystal structure was solved at a resolution of 1.71 Å. It shares the core alpha/beta-hydrolase fold with bacterial PETases, but contains a unique lid common in feruloyl esterases, which is involved in substrate binding. Thus, our study widens the currently known diversity of PET-hydrolyzing enzymes, by demonstrating PET depolymerization by a plant cell wall-degrading esterase.
... The rather sudden change from a niche environmental problem to a global priority encapsulated in Sustainable Development Goal 14.1, 'prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from landbased activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution' can be attributed to the convergence of scientific research, media attention, technological developments, socio-cultural progress and political efforts. Researchers exposed the insidious nature of plastic pollution, especially microplastics, which have been found in the deepest ocean trenches (Chiba et al., 2018), the highest mountain peaks (Bergmann et al., 2019) and even within our blood (Leslie et al., 2022). ...
Plastic pollution is a societal challenge that has gained global attention and become an urgent policy priority. Images of entangled marine life and heavily polluted beaches have come to symbolize the current system, characterized by an overdependence on plastic and mismanagement of waste. To become sustainable, a fundamental restructuring of the plastic production and consumption system is needed, including government regulations, changing consumer behaviors and innovative business practices. This thesis focuses on the latter, investigating how entrepreneurs and companies deploying sustainable business models focused on plastic can contribute to a sustainability transition.
The first study reviews the academic and theoretical landscape of studies on sustainable plastic management business models. The results reveal that academic attention on the topic of sustainable plastic business modeling is growing, but there is inconsistency with how business models are defined and cataloged.
Next, a market study of companies working specifically on the challenge of marine plastic is conducted. The study confirms that small businesses are successfully commercializing goods and services to reduce the damage of plastics to the marine environment through innovative business models. However, efforts to manage marine plastic are still underdeveloped in many areas, including microplastic management and monitoring, and little is known about the entrepreneurial experience of working in this field.
Subsequently, in-depth qualitative interviews with entrepreneurs working on marine plastic management were conducted to better understand the experience and details of their business models. The study proposes four business model categories that have unique and shared drivers and barriers. The results demonstrate that new ventures working in this field deploy different strategies, face distinct challenges and have varying motivations for their work.
The thesis then broadens scope to assess how sustainable entrepreneurs contribute to sustainability transitions. This research project involved an online survey of sustainable plastic businesses and found that the respondents are actively working to shape the systems they operate in and use different strategies to do so. Further, respondents that consider their company necessary and contributing to a sustainability transition were more likely to engage in system-shaping activities.
The main objective of this thesis was to improve the understanding of the global emergence and development of sustainable business models for plastic management and how this can lead to systemic changes. The results demonstrate that there is a myriad of business models available for ventures who want to work on sustainable plastic or marine plastic management, but that creative revenue models, focusing on higher waste hierarchy levels and adopting a systemic perspective can help these companies achieve larger impact. Future research can build on this thesis and track the dynamics of the sustainable plastics transition considering a wider group of stakeholders and perspectives, such as the circular economy and alternative economic paradigms. We conclude that sustainable ventures play a crucial role in the plastic transition and that this transition will influence venture development in return.
... The presence of microplastics in all regions of the planet from the remote highlands of Himalaya to the deepest ocean part in the Mariana Trench (CHIBA et al., 2018;NEELAVANNAN et al., 2022), stunned ordinary people and scientists. ...
This article analyzes the importance of plastics that have shaped the lifestyle of contemporary society and highlights the impacts produced by its wide availability across the planet. Starting from a brief historical overview of the rise of plastics and their insertion in different social and economic activities over the last century, we address the growing awareness of the deleterious mass proliferation of plastic pollution. In particular, we emphasize the increasing knowledge about the harmful effects of microplastics on biota and human health. A change in the role of plastic in society is unavoidable, with an urgent need for behavior changes in all social strata. Rethinking the way of production, use and management of plastics must involve social changes at domestic, regional and national levels. Environmental education and governance efforts for plastic recycling and innovation for environmentally friendly materials are of utmost importance. The change of attitudes, reducing the entry of plastics into the natural environment is an urgent task and enhancing individual awareness might be deemed paramount in educational institutions, and among decision makers.
... Moreover, in the past the deep sea has been utilized as a dumping ground for chemical and nuclear wastes, along with serving as a sequestering site for substantial quantities of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2010). In recent years, the deep sea is also facing global threats related to climate change and the accumulation of plastic litter (Pham et al., 2014a;Danovaro et al., 2017;Chiba et al., 2018;Morato et al., 2021). These threats raise concerns for the long-term conservation of deep-sea biodiversity, considering most species are exhibiting slow growth rates, late sexual maturity and long life cycles, with recovery thought to be difficult once such communities are severely damaged or populations depleted (Althaus et al., 2009;Williams et al., 2010;Clark et al., 2019;Morrison et al., 2020). ...
... Although surface waters and coastlines have received most research attention due to the visibility of accumulated litter and their ease of access, recent studies have shown that the deep sea is a major sink for human-related debris, including ALDFG (Woodall et al., 2015;Chiba et al., 2018;Parga Martínez et al., 2020;Nakajima et al., 2021). ALDFG accumulated over the seabed interacts with numerous benthic species in several ways, including smothering of organisms or entanglement Bo et al., 2014;Dominguez-Carrió et al., 2020;Galgani et al., 2018;Yoshikawa and Asoh, 2004) and ghost fishing (Matsuoka et al., 2005). ...
... Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2013) and/or video observations via remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), towed camera systems and manned submersibles (e.g. Miyake and Shibata, 2011;Pham et al., 2013a;Bo et al., 2015;Huvenne et al., 2016;Chiba et al., 2018;Dominguez-Carrió et al., 2020;Enrichetti et al., 2020). In this study we aimed to investigate the distribution of ALDFG at a large spatial scale, specifically by: 1) integrating a large imagery archive of underwater footage, spanning for 15 years, to quantify the amount of ALDFG on the seafloor of the Azores EEZ, 2) predicting its distribution and abundance to identify hotspots and priority areas for conservation and 3) utilising images to quantify the interactions of ALDFG with deep-sea organisms. ...
Abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), represents a significant percentage of the global plastic pollution, currently considered one of the major sources from sea-based activities. However, there is still limited understanding of the quantities of ALDFG present on the seafloor and their impacts. In this study, data on the presence of ALDFG was obtained from a large archive of seafloor video footage (351 dives) collected by different imaging platforms in the Azores region over 15 years (2006-2020). Most ALDFG items observed in the images relate to the local bottom longline fishery operating in the region, and include longlines but also anchors, weights, cables and buoys. A generalized additive mixed model (GAMM) was used to predict the distribution and abundance of ALDFG over the seafloor within the limits of the Azores Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) using a suite of environmental and anthropogenic variables. We estimated an average of 113 ± 310 items km-2 (597 ± 756 per km-2 above 1000 m depth) which could imply that over 20 million ALDFG items are present on the deep seafloor of the Azores EEZ. The resulting model identified potential hotspots of ALDFG along the seabed, some of them located over sensitive benthic habitats, such as specific seamounts. In addition, the interactions between ALDFG and benthic organisms were also analysed. Numerous entanglements were observed with several species of large anthozoans and sponges. The use of predictive distribution modelling for ALDFG should be regarded as a useful tool to support ecosystem-based management, which can provide indirect information about fishing pressure and allow the identification of potential high-risk areas. Additional knowledge about the sources, amounts, fates and impacts of ALDFG will be key to address the global issue of plastic pollution and the effects of fishing on marine ecosystems.
