Guidance on the monitoring of marine litter in European seas – An update to improve the harmonised monitoring of marine litter under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
François Galgani, Luis F. Ruiz-Orejón, Francesca Ronchi, Kévin Tallec, Elke Kerstin Fischer, Marco Matiddi, Aikaterini Anastasopoulou, Eva Andresmaa, Michela Angiolillo, Martha Bakker, Andy M. Booth, Natalja Buhhalko, Bernard Cadiou, Françoise Claro, Pierpaolo Consoli, Gaëlle Darmon, Salud Deudero, David M. Fleet, Tomaso Fortibuoni, María Cristina Fossi, Jesús Gago, Olivia Gérigny, Alessandra Giorgetti, Daniel Pérez González, Nils Guse, Mirco Haseler, Christos Ioakeimidis, Ulrike Kammann, Susanne Kühn, Camille Lacroix, Inga Lips, Liria Ana Loza, Maria Eugenia Molina Jack, Katja Norén, Michail Papadoyannakis, Hannah Pragnell-Raasch, Anna Rindorf, Marta Ruiz, Outi Setälä, Marcus Schulz, Martin Schultze, Silvestri, Cecilia, Lone Soederberg, Elena Stoica, Marie Storr‐Paulsen, Jakob Strand
Abstract
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) Technical Group on Marine Litter developed the ‘Guidance on monitoring of marine litter in European seas’ in 2013 to enable EU Member States to launch monitoring programmes for MSFD Descriptor 10: ‘no harm caused by marine litter’. The maturity of methodological protocols for marine litter monitoring has increased over the last 10 years, based on research advances and Member States’ efforts.<br/>This document updates the previous guidance to facilitate the harmonisation of the monitoring framework for the MSFD, including protocols, recommendations, and information required to increase the comparability of data and assessments among Member States. The document comprises chapters dedicated to the protocols for monitoring marine litter across different marine environmental compartments (i.e. the coastline/beach, the surface layer of the water column, the seafloor/seabed) and types of litter (i.e. macro litter, mesolitter, microlitter, ingested litter and microlitter by biota, and entanglement with litter).