engleski

Marine Litter; Global Problem - Local Solutions?

Marine litter is a worldwide environmental problem with significant socioeconomic, health and aesthetic consequences. It is present in all the world's seas, not only in densely populated areas, but also far from obvious sources and human influence. It is a multidimensional challenge with significant global consequences for the marine and coastal environment and human activities. These impacts are cultural and multisectoral, and are the result of poor waste management practices, lack of adequate infrastructure, harmful impacts of human activities and inappropriate behaviour of the public. To this should be added the lack of implementation of appropriate legal regulations at all levels and the lack of funds for removal. One of the first steps towards suppression is a regional approach, as marine litter problems transcend national borders. The countries of the Adriatic region are faced with a lack of appropriate measures to reduce the impact of marine waste pollution. Also, the existing international and national legislation is not applied at a satisfactory level. The Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries from Split participated in two important projects: DeFishGear (IPA Adriatic CBC program ; 2013–2016) and ML-REPAIR (INTERREG Ita–Cro ; 2018–2019) which dealt with the wider context of the issue of marine debris and ultimately resulted in a regional strategic assessment. The important goals of the project are raising the level of environmental awareness and educating target groups by adopting examples of "good practice", reducing the amount of waste on beaches and the seabed by actively involving the civil and fishing sectors, and monitoring and removing waste from the bottom in selected Natura 2000 areas. With the completion of the projects, an assessment of the state of the sea and the coastal zone was obtained regarding pollution with waste washed up on the coast, floating, as well as from the seabed collected in trawling and lost fishing tools, as well as better knowledge about the burden of microplastics and its effects on marine organisms. The aforementioned activities made an important contribution to the problem of marine waste, and special value comes from the active involvement of the civil and fishing sectors. Also, the national legislation was positively influenced, given that marine waste management is still at an insufficient level.

marine litter on beaches, floating marine litter, microplastics, discarded fishing gear, marine litter from trawling

nije evidentirano