THE MARINE LITTER MONITORING PROGRAM ON THE BEACHES OF CANGAS
INTRODUCTION
The Marine Litter Monitoring Program on the beaches of Cangas is a research Project carried out by Biology and Geology students of the school Compañía de María de Cangas, coordinated by their teacher. The project has a collaborating partner which is a company called Frigoríficos del Morrazo, S.A.
OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this project is the introduction and initiation of the students of 4th of ESO in the research. There are also secondary objectives: the awareness of the students and the population about the care of the environment, a certain cleaning of the beaches and making their condition public to the authorities and the citizenship.
This program is developed in five beaches of Cangas located near the town centre and whose names are Alemáns, Massó, Congorza, Medio and Cunchas. During the year 2019, 4 samplings were done in each beach (winter, spring, summer and autumn) with the purpose of evaluating the existence of seasonal behaviour in the presence of marine litter.
ALEMÁNS
MASSÓ
CONGORZA
MEDIO
CUNCHAS
The project broadly follows the protocol of the MARINE GARBAGE MONITORING PROGRAM ON BEACH OF THE GENERAL DIRECTION OF COAST AND SEA SUSTAINABILITY OF THE MINISTRY FOR ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION (GOVERNMENT OF SPAIN) framed in OSPAR Convention for the protection of the North Atlantic.
THE RESEARCH PROTOCOL IS SPECIFIED IN THE FOLLOWING STEPS:
1) Sampling across the beach.
2) Documentation of the sampling.
3) Removal of observed garbage.
4) Drying and sorting of the collected objects.
5) Re-counting of the materials.
6) Writing down the information on the Sampling form.
7) Weighing and storage of collected garbage.
8) Incorporation of the information in the correct spreadsheet.
9) Analysis and study of data.
10) Communication of the annual report.
During the year 2019, the 20 scheduled samplings were carried out on the 5 beaches under study.
In all these campaigns, a total of 741 kg of rubbish were removed and a total of 31231 objects were counted, with an average number of objects found per beach and a campaign of 1562 with significant differences between the different beaches and campaigns. The maximum was obtained with an average of 4310 objects per campaign on the beaches of Salgueirón and Massó and the minimum of 684 objects on average per campaign on the beach of Alemáns.
Depending on the season of the year, it was in the summer sampling when the largest number of objects was detected and on the winter one the smallest number. One of the reasons of this results is the really intense sampling done on the beach of Salgueirón.
We established twelve categories of objects, most of the materials being glass (generally small in size and very warm) with 63,78% of the total (19918 objects). In much smaller proportions there is also building materials, 5067 objects representing 16,22% of the total and plastics, 4237 objects, 13,57% of the total.
The origin of this litter is varied and not always easily identifiable. We highlight the following sources:
1ª. Fishing, shellfishing and mussel farming. Among the materials with this origin we observe: fragments of nets, cables of various thicknesses, cavities, boxes and fragments of polystyrene, traps, buoys, ropes and raft sticks.
2ª. Tourism. We assign to this origin objects such as: jars, drinks bottles, soft drinks cans, bags and chopsticks.
3ª Debris waste disposal. The most common objects are fragments of bricks and cement blocks, fragments of tiles and tiles, remnants of iron from concrete structures, fragments of uralites. These materials, in general, are very eroded, which indicates that they have been in the sea for decades.
4ª. Garbage dumps. The most abundant objects we assign to this origin are the pieces of glass, in general, fragments of heavily worn bottles and crockery. In this category we also highlight cotton buds and sanitary wet wipes.
The study ends up by making three warnings on the presence of certain garbage that speaks of practices that are not respectful for the environment:
1ª. Hygienic wipes/ towelettes that arrive at Beach of Salgueiron through the sewer.
2ª. Abandonment of cigarette butts, beverage containers, bags on the beaches.
3ª. Presence of a landfill on the beach of Cunchas that continues to bring debris of different types to the sea.