Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan

Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

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Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul

Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan Fan-Jun Kuo, Hsiang-Wen Huang ⇑ Institute of Marine Affairs and Resources Management, National Taiwan Ocean University, No. 2, Pei-Ning Road, Keelung 20224, Taiwan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Keywords: Plastics Plastic-limit policy Shoreline and recreational activities Strip transect

a b s t r a c t Six sites (two sites for each of rocky shores, sandy beaches, and fishing ports) in northern Taiwan were selected to investigate the amount and density of marine debris in each of the four seasons and after spring and neap tides from 2012 to 2013. The results indicate that marine debris was higher on rocky shores than sandy beaches and fishing ports. There is no significant difference between season and tide. The dominant debris was plastic-type, followed by polystyrene. The majority of debris originated from recreational activities, followed from ocean/waterway activities. The results suggest that the following actions are needed: (1) continue and reinforce the plastic-limit policy; (2) increase the cleaning frequency at rocky shores; (3) promote marine environmental education, with a goal of debris-free coasts; (4) recycle fishing gear and to turn that gear into energy; and (5) coordinate between agencies to establish a mechanism to monitor debris. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is a matter of global concern. Marine debris is defined as any man-made object discarded, disposed of, or abandoned that enters the coastal or marine environment (NOAA, 2007). The sources of marine debris are divided into land-based sources and ocean-based sources. Land-based sources include landfills, river-entrained refuse, the mishandling and overflowing of sewage drainage systems, industrial waste, and coastal leisure and sightseeing. Ocean-based sources include goods on ships, ships along cruise routes, derelict fishing gear (DFG) from fishing boats, waste discharge from warships and research vessels, offshore natural gas and oil extraction facilities, and aquaculture facilities. All of these debris sources originate from human activities and industries (Mouat et al., 2010; UNEP, 2005). The impact of marine debris can be categorized into three types of impacts: the injury to or death of marine life, harm to marine ecosystems, and effects on human lives and property (NOAA, 2011b; UNEP, 2005; USEPA, 2012). Marine debris can result in ingestion and entanglement. Seabirds, fish, turtles, and marine mammals often accidentally ingest marine debris (Baird and Hooker, 2000; Bugoni et al., 2001; Carpenter et al., 1972; Gramentz, 1988; Hong et al., 2013; Laist, 1987; Moser and Lee, ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 2462 2192x5608; fax: +886 2 2463 3986. E-mail address: [email protected] (H.-W. Huang).

1992; Ryan, 1988; Schrey and Vauk, 1987; Tarpley and Marwitz, 1993). In marine ecosystems, marine debris can cause an invasion of alien species, thus affecting the marine ecosystem (Derraik, 2002; Grassle et al., 1991; Winston, 1982). As for human health and the economy, excessive coastal debris may discourage the public from visiting the beach, and thus may affect income related to coastal tourism (NOAA, 2011a). In regard to the reduction in marine debris, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the United States have implemented and maintained a beach debris survey program related to the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) since 1993 (Edyvane et al., 2004). The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) approved the Honolulu Strategy and suggested that member nations adopt those measures accordingly in 2011 (UNEP, 2011). At a national level, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States has applied a standardized recording sheet to evaluate the status of marine debris in the Gulf of Mexico along coasts of the United States since 1996 (Sheavly, 2010). Korea took notice of this issue in 1999 and began to make plans to reduce marine debris in 2003 (Jung et al., 2010). As for the private sector, the Ocean Conservancy launched the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) plan in 1986 to create long-term monitoring and surveys of the amount and types of coastal debris. The ICC plan became an international plan in 1989, and 97 countries and regions were participants in this plan as of 2012 (The Ocean Conservancy, 2013).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019 0025-326X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

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F.-J. Kuo, H.-W. Huang / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

In Taiwan, there were limited information and actions taken in relation to marine debris until the government adopted Coast Coastal Environment Cleanup Operation Guidelines in 1997 (Environment Protection Administration, 1997). The number of participants and amount of marine debris cleared varied between years, which was highest in 2004 and decreased thereafter (Fig. 1). On the other hand, Taiwan Kuroshio Education Foundation, launched a plan to remove beach debris in 2000. Beginning in 2005, Tainan Community University has monitored marine debris at the Erren River estuary once per month for the duration of three hours each time (Tainan Community University, 2013). Beginning in 2008, the Society of Wilderness has conducted beach cleanups at 26 locations in Taiwan. In 2010, a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) formed the Taiwan Ocean Cleanup Alliance (TOCA), invited many organizations to adopt and monitor the coasts of Taiwan, and established a marine debris database as a basis for analysis and policy formulation (The Society of Wilderness, 2013). The participants increased from 370 in 2010 to 6945 in 2012 (The Ocean Conservancy, 2010; The Ocean Conservancy, 2013). The percentage of shoreline and recreational activities (76.9%) and ocean/waterway activities (14.2%) of Taiwan were higher than Global average (64.7% and 9.0% respectively). The percentage of smoking-related activities (7.3%), dumping activities (1.0%), and medical/personal hygiene (0.5%) of Taiwan were lower than global average (22.1%, 2.2%, and 2.0% respectively) (The Ocean Conservancy, 2013). Recent research in southern Taiwan showed the percentage of plastic bags, and plastic bottles were lower than NMDMP (National Marine Debris Program of the US Environmental Protection Agency). The possible reason is the ‘‘Plastic Restriction Policy’’ and the ‘‘Compulsory Trash-sorting Policy’’ adopted and implemented by Taiwan Environmental Agency since 2002 (Liu et al., 2013). Because of the growing concern regarding marine debris, the first step to take when formulating administrative measures is to understand the types and composition of coastal debris. Lots studies have been conducted in the northern South China Sea, Chile, the coastline of Japan, the Hawaiian Islands, the Falkland Islands, South Australia, California, and west coast of the United States, with study sites including beaches, the sea surface, and the seafloor (Dameron et al., 2007; Edyvane et al., 2004; Keller et al., 2010; Moore et al., 2001; Otley and Ingham, 2003; Shiomoto and Kameda, 2005; Thiel et al., 2003; Zhou et al., 2011). More were done in sandy beaches than rocky shores (Thiel et al., 2013). In this study, the amount and composition of marine debris were examined along the northern coast of Taiwan, an area with the highest population density in Taiwan. Characteristics and possible differences in marine debris with seasons, tide types, locations, and

400 350

25

300 20

250 200

15

150

10

Person (1000)

Coastal Debris (1000 mt)

30

100 5

50 0

0

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Weight(mt)

Persons

Fig. 1. Outcome of coastal areas cleanup program resources: yearbook of environment protection statistics of Republic of China, 2003–2013.

topographies were analyzed and used as a reference for planning mitigation measures and for proposing further administrative suggestions.

2. Materials and methods The coastline of New Taipei City in Taiwan is 122 km long and is tortuous, complex, and rich in marine abrasion terrain. There are a small number of beaches on the coast, along with 26 fishing ports. Twenty-six candidate sites that were accessible by foot, were at least 100 m long, and contained well-defined topography were selected and divided into two regions (E: east, W: west) and three types of topography (S: sandy beach, R: rocky shore, F: fishing port). Among them, 6 experiment sites were randomly chosen. These randomly chosen sites included Baishawan (SW), Jiashawan (SE), Jianzilu (RW), Longdong (RE), Tamsui fishing port (FW), and Aodi fishing port (FE) (Fig. 2). According to the location at which the debris was found, marine debris was classified into three types: seafloor marine debris (SMD), floating marine debris (FMD), and beached marine debris (BMD) (Zhou et al., 2011). Depending on the location, one or more of the following six methods could be used in the investigation of this debris: trawl net, diving facility, diver, snorkeling, sonar, and manta tow. In particular, the strip transect method is applicable to the study of FMD and BMD (Hinojosa and Thiel, 2009; Shiomoto and Kameda, 2005; Thiel et al., 2003; Titmus and Hyrenbach, 2011). In this research, the strip transect method was used to estimate the density of debris (item/m2), and the range of the investigation was set to be 100 m  10 m. Because the amount and composition of marine debris could be affected by the time of year and the tides (Thornton and Jackson, 1998), the period from June of 2012 to May of 2013 was divided into four seasons in this study, including June to August 2012 (summer), September to November 2012 (autumn), December 2012 to February 2013 (winter), and March to May 2013 (spring) (Central Weather Bureau, 2013). During each season, we carried out one survey within 24 h after the spring tide and another within 24 h after the neap tide, amounting to a total of 48 surveys (3 geography types  2 areas  4 seasons  2 tides). As for the classification of marine debris, we classified the debris into nine categories and 57 items based on information in the literature (Keller et al., 2010; The Ocean Conservancy, 2010; Liu et al., 2013; Thiel et al., 2013) and on types found in pre-test recordings. These nine categories are listed as follows: (1) general plastic, including plastic bags, plastic bottles, plastic cups, cigarette butts, and plastic fragments; (2) paper, including paper bags, and aluminum foil bags; (3) polystyrene, including disposable tableware and fishing supplies; (4) metal, including iron aluminum cans, household appliances, and batteries; (5) glass, such as glass bottles and light bulbs; (6) rubber, such as tires, fishing boat fenders, and shoes; (7) fabric, including clothing, (8) nylon, including fishing nets, and ropes; and (9) other, including disposable chopsticks, furniture, and barbeque supplies. The sources of debris were classified into five major categories according to ICC standards. These categories include shoreline and recreational activities, smoking-related activities, ocean/ waterway activities, dumping activities, and medical/personal hygiene (The Ocean Conservancy, 2010). Descriptive statistics were applied to analyze the total amount, density, and standard errors of densities of debris for different sites, topographies, tides, and seasons. Because of a relatively small sample size and, most likely, a non-normal distribution, we applied the Kruskal–Wallis H test to analyze the differences between the sites, topographies, seasons, and tide types (Keller, 2009) and employed a post hoc multiple comparison of Duncan’s multiple

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

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F.-J. Kuo, H.-W. Huang / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

Fig. 2. Location of the survey sites in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

The 48 surveys recorded a total of 9319 items of debris. The number of debris items was highest (1165) after the spring tide during the second season at Jianzilu and lowest (2) after the spring tide during the fourth season at Tamsui fishing port. From the perspective of site locations, the debris density was highest at Jianzilu (0.614 ± 0.309 items/m2) and was lowest at Tamsui port (0.023 ± 0.018 items/m2). There were significant differences in the amount of debris between locations (H = 32.864, p < 0.001). The amount of debris at Jianzilu was significantly higher than that at the other five locations, and there were no significant differences between these other five observation sites (Fig. 3a). From the perspective of topography, rocky shorelines contained the most debris (0.398 ± 0.326 items/m2), followed by sandy beaches (0.149 ± 0.084 items/m2), and fishing ports had the least debris (0.035 ± 0.023 items/m2). There were significant differences between the different topographies (H = 27.214, p < 0.001). The debris found on rocky shorelines was significantly more abundant than that found on sandy beaches and in fishing ports, and there was no significant difference between the amount of debris found on sandy beaches and in fishing ports (Fig. 3b). From the perspective of the seasons, the greatest density of debris was found in autumn (0.309 ± 0.354 items/m2 on average), and the lowest debris density was found in spring (0.101 ± 0.167 items/ m2) (Fig. 3c). From the perspective of tide types, the density of debris was found to be 0.241 ± 0.287 items/m2 after spring tides and 0.148 ± 0.187 items/m2 after neap tides (Fig. 3d). There was no significant difference in the density of marine debris between different seasons or between different tide types (H = 5.712, p = 0.127 for season; H = 1.966, p = 0.161 for tides). 3.2. Composition

Density (item/m2)

(a)

0.8 0.614 0.6 0.4 0.182

0.2

0.165 0.133

0.047

0.023 0.0 Jianzilu

Longdong Baishawan Jiashawan

Tamsui Aodi fishing port fishing port

0.8

Density (item/m2)

3.1. Density

(b)

0.6 0.398 0.4 0.149 0.2 0.035 0.0 Rocky shores

Sandy beaches

Fishing ports

0.8

Density (item/m2)

3. Results

1.0

(c)

0.6 0.4 0.198 0.2

0.309 0.169

0.101

0.0 Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

0.6

Density (item/m2)

range test to determine the differences between various groups. The analyses above were performed using SPSS 19.0.

(d)

0.4 0.241 0.2

0.148

0.0

Among the 57 types of debris, plastic fragments accounted for the highest percentage (33.58%), followed by bottle caps (13.34%), fishery polystyrene (6.30%), cigarette butts (6.01%), rope

Neap

Spr in g

Fig. 3. Density of debris and standard deviation of debris density in each (a) location, (b) topography, (c) season, and (d) tide type.

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

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F.-J. Kuo, H.-W. Huang / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

(4.08%), and plastic bags (3.82%). The percentage of other types of debris accounted for less than 3% of all debris found (Fig. 4a). The dominant type of debris was plastic, accounting for 6695 items (71.84%), followed by polystyrene, with 761 items (8.17%), nylon (5.44%), paper (5.37%), and rubber (5.06%). Other types of debris account for less than 5% of items found (Fig. 4b). The most diverse types of debris were found at Jianzilu. The debris found at Jianzilu included significant higher percentage of glass (2.18%). Relatively more polystyrene was found at Longdong (29.88%, Table 1). The type of debris at other locations was primarily plastic, polystyrene, nylon, and paper. The Kruskal–Wallis test indicated that most types of debris varied with topography. The paper and others of debris did not exhibit significant differences (p = 0.08 and 0.05 respectively). Other types of debris exhibited significant differences between the different

(a)

(b)

topographies. Plastic was found in relatively high amount (91.04%) on sandy beaches, and lowest in rocky shores (56.7%). The proportion of polystyrene, nylon, rubber, glass, metal, and fabrics in rocky shore was higher than that on sandy beaches and in fishing ports (Table 1). As for seasons and tide types, only paper debris varied significantly with seasons (p = 0.007). The percentage of paper debris found during the spring (1.71%) was lower than that in other seasons. Other types of debris did not vary significantly with season or with tide type (Table 1).

3.3. Sources Debris sources were primarily shoreline and recreational activities (7034 items, 75.48%), followed by boats and fishing activity (1498 items, 16.07%). Products of smoke-related activities accounted for 8.02% of debris. Very few dumping and health/medical supplies were found in the debris, amounting to only 36 and 4 items, respectively, which accounts for less than 0.5% (Fig. 4c). The amount of medical/personal hygiene supplies was very low, without significant differences between these locations (H = 7.302, p = 0.199). The rest of the debris types differed with location (Table 2). The proportion of shorelines and recreational debris was highest (80.66%) at Jinshawan, and ocean/waterway activity debris (43.98%) was highest in Longdong. Products of smokerelated activities were relatively low at Longdong (0.68%) (Table 2). As for differences between topography types, the amount of medical/personal hygiene was very low at all topography types, without significant differences between the topographies (H = 2.086, p = 0.352). All of the other types of debris sources exhibited significant differences between topographies (Table 2). Recreational debris accounted for the highest percentage of debris (79.16%) on sandy beaches. The proportion of debris resulting from ocean/waterway activities (30.91%), and dumping (0.57%) was relatively high on rocky shorelines, and products of smoke-related activities accounted for a relatively low (2.19%). Sources of debris did not vary significantly with season and tide type (Table 2).

4. Discussion 4.1. Shoreline characteristics

(c)

Fig. 4. Composition of (a) types, (b) categories, and (c) sources.

The results indicated that the amount of debris is affected by topography. The summation of plastic, paper, and polystyrene of sandy beaches and fishing ports were more than 90%. The types of marine debris in rocky shores were diversified with high density, and relatively high percentages of polystyrene, glass, metal, fabric and rubber. A survey in California also indicates that there is more debris in rocky shore areas than that on sandy beaches. There are relatively more beach cleaning activities on sandy beaches, whereas beach cleanup is relatively rare in rocky shore areas, and debris tends to become embedded in cracks between rocks, making it difficult to remove (Moore et al., 2001). In addition, the rocky shorelines of northern Taiwan attract anglers, resulting in all types of refuse deposited on rocky shores. On rocky shorelines, the amount of debris was highest at Jianzilu. The survey results indicate that this location is open space that is managed by the local cleaning department. This area is cleaned once every month. Other locations included in the survey are managed as scenic areas and are cleaned once a weak or as often as every day. The fishing ports have an artificial topography and are cleaned by local government every day, the amount of debris is lowest in fishing ports. These results indicate that the amount of beach debris is affected by cleaning frequency.

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

Sources

Plastic

Polystyrene

Nylon

Paper

Rubber

Metal

Glass

Fabric

Other

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Location Jianzilu Longdong Baishawan Jinshawan Aodi port Tamsui port p

66.70%c 46.75%d 95.04%a 87.04%a,b 75.89%b,c 80.74%a,b,c <0.001

11.28% 23.22% 6.33% 9.32% 14.81% 15.88%

6.54%b 29.88%a 0.61%b 2.05%b 4.27%b 8.84%b <0.001

2.38% 10.76% 1.29% 3.05% 4.21% 13.61%

6.63%a 7.16%a 0.98%b 2.53%b 2.99%b 2.48%b <0.001

3.56% 4.06% 1.01% 1.51% 2.94% 4.09%

5.23% 2.43% 2.20% 5.84% 16.14% 7.67% 0.062

3.13% 1.97% 2.75% 6.14% 13.52% 7.80%

8.65%a 5.14%a 0.00%b 1.14%b 0.00%b 0.00%b <0.001

11.71% 6.32% 0.00% 1.56% 0.00% 0.00%

1.82%a 5.20%a 0.00%b 0.05%b 0.00%b 0.00%b <0.001

2.34% 11.44% 0.00% 0.13% 0.00% 0.00%

2.18%a 0.50%b 0.28%b 0.00%b 0.00%b 0.00%b <0.001

1.67% 0.52% 0.52% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

1.07%a 2.55%a 0.00%b 0.00%b 0.00%b 0.00%b <0.001

1.20% 5.80% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

1.17%a 0.38%b 0.90%b 1.35%a 0.69%b 0.27%b 0.01

0.87% 0.82% 2.11% 1.12% 1.96% 0.77%

Topography Rocky shores Sandy Beaches Fishing Ports p

56.73% c 91.04%a 78.31% b <0.001

20.42% 8.73% 15.05%

18.21%a 1.33%b 6.56%b <0.001

14.21% 2.38% 10.01%

6.89%a 1.76%b 2.74%b <0.001

3.69% 1.48% 3.45%

3.83% 4.02% 11.91% 0.083

2.91% 4.96% 11.53%

6.90%a 0.57%b 0.00%b <0.001

9.27% 1.22% 0.00%

3.51%a 0.02%b 0.00%b <0.001

8.16% 0.09% 0.00%

1.34%a 0.14%b 0.00%b <0.001

1.48% 0.38% 0.00%

1.81%a 0.00%b 0.00%b <0.001

4.11% 0.00% 0.00%

0.78% 1.12% 0.48% 0.05

0.91% 1.65% 1.46%

Season Spring Summer Autumn Winter p

77.73% 68.04% 75.29% 80.39% 0.198

29.45% 17.43% 19.59% 14.49%

10.44% 11.26% 7.79% 5.30% 0.324

15.63% 13.29% 10.99% 8.45%

3.35% 4.28% 3.35% 4.20% 0.266

5.32% 2.32% 4.02% 2.97%

1.71%b 9.67%a 8.23%a 6.73%a 0.007

2.59% 7.17% 10.93% 8.45%

0.93% 4.04% 3.69% 1.30% 0.549

2.01% 10.63% 5.72% 1.87%

2.92% 0.61% 0.65% 0.53% 0.905

9.59% 1.51% 1.66% 1.14%

0.32% 0.95% 0.43% 0.28% 0.634

0.73% 1.67% 0.81% 0.66%

1.66% 0.06% 0.09% 0.61% 0.606

4.81% 0.20% 0.23% 1.11%

0.96% 1.09% 0.48% 0.65% 0.827

1.74% 1.86% 0.87% 0.73%

Tide Neap tide Spring tide p

72.09% 78.64% 0.529

24.86% 15.74%

10.79% 6.61% 0.594

14.61% 9.06%

4.08% 3.51% 0.959

4.39% 3.00%

5.30% 7.88% 0.521

6.15% 9.82%

3.49% 1.49% 0.827

8.36% 2.31%

1.68% 0.68% 0.693

6.79% 1.57%

0.55% 0.43% 0.920

1.26% 0.83%

1.09% 0.11% 0.203

3.44% 0.46%

0.93% 0.66% 0.637

1.65% 1.04%

F.-J. Kuo, H.-W. Huang / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

Note: 1. Significant difference is defined as p<0.05. 2. When there was significant difference among groups, the a,b,c,or d were added to show the difference. The groups with the same a,b,c, or d implied they were homogeneous, and those with different letters were significantly different from the others.

5

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

Table 1 Percentage of marine debris by categories by topography.

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F.-J. Kuo, H.-W. Huang / Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2014) xxx–xxx

Table 2 Percentage of marine debris by sources by topography. Sources

Shoreline & recreational

Ocean/waterway

Smoking-related

Dumping

Medial/personal hygiene

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Mean

SE

Location Jianzilu Longdong Baishawan Jinshawan Aodi port Tamsui port p

77.68%a 54.79%b 77.67%a 80.66%a 71.27%a,b 59.86%b 0.006

7.10% 13.43% 20.31% 11.40% 14.02% 22.00%

17.84%b 43.98%a 1.20%d 4.02%c,d 5.78%c,d 11.80%b,c <0.001

8.91% 13.87% 1.01% 2.49% 5.36% 12.23%

3.71%b,c 0.68%c 21.10%a 15.10%a,b 22.94%a 28.34%a <0.001

3.98% 0.90% 19.59% 9.87% 13.89% 20.24%

0.59%a 0.55%a 0.00%b 0.22%a,b 0.00%b 0.00%b <0.001

0.51% 0.79% 0.00% 0.63% 0.00% 0.00%

0.18% 0.00% 0.04% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00% 0.199

0.42% 0.00% 0.11% 0.00% 0.00% 0.00%

Topography Rocky shores Sandy Beaches Fishing Ports p

66.23%b 79.16%a 65.57%b <0.001

15.73% 15.99% 18.77%

30.91%a 2.61%b 8.79%b <0.001

17.58% 2.35% 9.64%

2.19%b 18.10%a 25.64%a 0.023

3.20% 15.30% 17.00%

0.57%a 0.11%b 0.00%b <0.001

0.64% 0.45% 0.00%

0.09% 0.02% 0.00% 0.352

0.30% 0.08% 0.00%

Season Spring Summer Autumn Winter p

71.31% 65.15% 68.73% 76.10% 0.332

20.39% 14.15% 22.06% 12.86%

14.71% 16.69% 13.58% 11.43% 0.554

21.20% 16.43% 17.92% 11.98%

13.63% 18.07% 17.32% 12.22% 0.812

17.67% 17.27% 19.25% 11.69%

0.25% 0.09% 0.34% 0.23% 0.758

0.60% 0.23% 0.69% 0.43%

0.10% 0.00% 0.03% 0.02% 0.790

0.35% 0.00% 0.09% 0.06%

Tide Neap tide Spring tide p

67.40% 73.24% 0.257

19.04% 16.10%

17.22% 10.99% 0.445

19.28% 13.48%

15.10% 15.52% 0.959

16.26% 16.81%

0.22% 0.24% 0.401

0.55% 0.47%

0.06% 0.01% 0.523

0.25% 0.04%

Note: 1. Significant difference is defined as p<0.05. 2. When there was significant difference among groups, the a,b,c,or d were added to show the difference. The groups with the same a,b,c, or d implied they were homogeneous, and those with different letters weresignificantly different from the others.

4.2. Debris types

4.3. Sources of debris

From the perspective of debris types, plastic debris was found in the highest abundance. The percentage of plastic in other studies of marine debris was found to be between 16% and 90% (Bugoni et al., 2001; Derraik, 2002; Keller et al., 2010; Stefatos et al., 1999; UNEP, 2005; Viehman et al., 2011; Thiel et al., 2013). The total percentage of plastic of this research, including general plastic and nylon, was 79.2%. The results indicate that plastic remains the main type of marine debris. Most likely, plastic is so prevalent among marine debris because it is convenient and therefore widely used and because it does not decompose easily. Due to the plastic-limitation policy implemented since 2002 (Liu et al., 2013), the percentage of plastic bags (3.82%) were lower than NMDMP (9.0%) and in south Taiwan (4.5%, Liu et al., 2013). However, there are higher percentage of plastic fragments should be cautious (Cole et al., 2011; Desforges et al., 2014). In the past four decades, both the amount and mass concentration of micro-plastic debris in the North Pacific increased by two order of magnitude (Goldstein et al., 2012). Micro-plastics were abundant throughout the subsurface waters of the NE Pacific Ocean. Greater plastic abundance was detected in coastal stations compared to offshore waters. The increased nearshore plastic concentrations suggested that sources may be due to fishing, recreational boating, and/or wastewater effluent (Desforges et al., 2014). Polystyrene and nylon, accounting for the following percentage of marine debris, was mainly composed of fishing gears, such as fishery polystyrene, rope, and fishing nets. There are 26 fishing ports and more than two thousand small-scale fishing vessels in northern Taiwan. The Marine Pollution Control Act clearly declares that wastewater, oil, waste and other polluting substances shall remain on board or be discharged into on-shore reception facilities, and the Fishing Port Act has prohibited fishermen from discarding garbage at port. However, there is little enforcement or no recycle policy for fishing gears. At least 30% fishermen admitted and they would dispose the fishing net/gears into sea (Chen and Liu, 2013). The discarded fishing gear by those fishing vessels would become major sources of marine debris.

The source of debris was primarily domestic shoreline and recreational activities in this study, accounting for 75.48% of debris sources, which was higher than the global average in 2010 (68.16%) and Taiwan in 2010 (68.29%) (The Ocean Conservancy, 2010) and Kaohsiung (64.3%) in 2009–2010 (Liu et al., 2013), and similar to the result of Taiwan in 2012 (76.90%) (The Ocean Conservancy, 2013). Research in the South China Sea also showed most of beach marine debris (95%) were not ocean-based sources but land-based sources. Most of them were attributed to coastal/ recreational activity, because of the effect of human activities (Zhou et al., 2011). This high percentage is likely caused by the high number of tourist trips in northern Taiwan, where there are more than 13 million tourists annually (Tourism Bureau, 2013). Many tourists carry food and recreational equipment that are not properly disposed of, leading to a higher percentage of recreational debris than that found in other studies. The highest percentage of recreational debris on sandy beaches is reasonable because greater number of tourists visit sandy beaches. In addition, although there are regulations to prohibit discarded garbage, some tourists are still discarding the garbage incorrectly due to limited trash receptacles and low enforcement. The percentage of debris originating from vessel activity and fishery behavior was as high as 44% at Longdong. The Kuroshio Current flows northeast of Taiwan and is the primary coastal fishing ground for Taiwan. There are also many fishing ports near Longdong, resulting in the movement of DFG by ocean currents and the accumulation of DFG in rocky terrain. The survey results are similar to the previous study in the Falkland Islands (Otley and Ingham, 2003) indicated that 42% of the debris found at that location is fishery debris. The Hawaiian Archipelago is recognized as a hot spot for DFG (Dameron et al., 2007; Morishige and McElwee, 2012), and there are frequent fishery activities in this area. To reduce DFG, the Council of Agriculture of Taiwan entrusted NGOs to remove nets in offshore reef areas in 2002 and 2003 (Chinese Diving Promotion Association and Chinese Diving

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

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Association, 2002; Chinese Taipei Diving Association et al., 2003), and some NGOs voluntarily removed debris on the seafloor of Kenting, southern Taiwan. However, these efforts have been very sporadic and fragmental because of limited sources of manpower, resulting in limited effects and in a considerable portion of DFG remaining on rocky shorelines. 4.4. Seasonal and tidal influence Storm, tides, and El Niño might have impacts on marine debris. Debris deposition might be significantly greater during El Niño events as compared to La Niña events (Morishige et al., 2007). It is also noted that typhoon Morakot pounded Taiwan in 2009, more than three million trees fell and were washed away to occupy 83.2% of the Taiwanese coastline, including 52 fishing harbors. Nearshore current and wave motion are the critical factors for driftwood deposition (Doong et al., 2011). For avoiding the results biased by extreme weather, these surveys are conducted only when there was no typhoon or big storm in previous weeks, especially in summer. As a result, there was no significant difference between tides and season by this research which is similar with the outcome in Chilean coast (Thiel et al., 2013). 4.5. Challenges and suggestions to reduce marine debris In this research, most marine debris was domestic because it could not be identified from foreign resources. Many researches showed that it is necessary to reduce marine debris to have local solutions under the circumstances (Thiel et al., 2013; Zhou et al., 2011). This is to reiterate the importance to find the major source of marine debris and set priorities to reduce it. In Taiwan, Article 5 of the Coastal Environment Cleanup Operation Guidelines by Environment Protection Agency requires that the managing agency (local governments) should coordinate with schools, NGOs, and enterprises, or should employ workers to remove seashore refuse, thus educating the public and creating jobs to alleviate the manpower shortage. However, due to budget and personnel limitation, the implementation of the guidelines is not monitored. For administrative regulations and enforcement, there are the Ocean Pollution Act and related regulations for protection of marine water. However, law enforcement should be strengthened to educate and warn tourists not to dispose litters in beaches. Regarding the location and topography, this study found that there was a considerable amount of debris on rocky shorelines with lower cleaning frequencies. These locations should be the priorities for stronger cleanup measures. Regarding the marine debris types, plastic debris accounted for 65.95% of marine debris, clearly indicating that plastic is the main type of marine debris. Since 2002, the Environmental Protection Administration of Taiwan (EPA of Taiwan) has instituted restrictions on the use of plastic shopping bags and disposable plastic tableware. The promotion of this policy reduced the number of plastic bags used by 58.34% and reduced the amount of plastic disposable tableware used by 86% in 2005 (Environment Protection Administration Executive Yuan, 2013). Since 2011, the EPA of Taiwan has encouraged national beverage chains and convenience stores to set up recycling facilities for beverage cups and to provide a NT $ 2–10 discount to consumers who bring their own reusable cups (Environment Protection Administration Executive Yuan, 2013). The lower percentage of plastic bags from this research might be the effect of the plastic-limit policy. Therefore, if policies can be effectively implemented, these policies should be able to reduce the amount of marine debris.

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In addition, the percentage of caps (13.08%) ranked second among individual debris items, and the amount of caps found was two to three times of that of PET bottles (2.23%) and of plastic drinking bottles (2.09%). In Taiwan, at least 2.8 billion PET bottles are used every year. Because of recycling incentives, 95% of these PET bottles are recycled. However, half of these recycled bottles do not have caps. To address the prevalence of bottle caps among marine debris, government departments can improve upon their promotion of the recycling of bottle caps or can compile recycling awards to encourage bottle recycling with caps. Regarding the marine debris sources, the shorelines and recreation-type debris dominated northern Taiwan because there are large recreational population in that region. Education and advocacy are powerful tools, especially starting in childhood, and can effectively change people’s habits (Derraik, 2002). Therefore, it is suggested that marine environmental education should be incorporated into elementary and middle school curricula and activities to cleanup nearby beaches should be organized during the school year. Meanwhile, to reduce the impacts of recreational activities on nature, the concept of ‘‘Leave No Trace’’ should be promoted to the public, and event organizers should be requested to teach the public to treat the environment properly with the correct attitude when hosting an event. This study indicates that 16.1% of debris is DFG. This percentage is rather high. There are nearly 20,000 coastal and offshore vessels in Taiwan, yet still no strategies or proposed measures exists to encourage the recycling of fishing gear. Jones (1995) suggested that fishermen should be taught ways to improve waste disposal facilities at ports and to use non-plastic bait containers and fishing net recycling programs to reduce fishery waste. It has been noted that the United States, Korea, and Japan have implemented fishing gear buyback programs, and DFG and marine debris can then be converted to energy (Dong-Oh, 2009; NOAA, 2013; Noh et al., 2010; Fishing Grounds Resources Division, 2013). Hence, although recycling fishing gear may be time-consuming and may reduce cabin space on a ship, the recycling of this gear can serve multiple purposes if fishermen are educated to understand its significance. It is suggested that the Fishery Agency could reward fishermen who recycle DFG, and the EPA of Taiwan develops or introduces technology to convert recycled DFG into renewable energy. 4.6. Further research Because of the lack of public concern regarding marine debris, of manpower, and of funding in Taiwan, the understanding of marine debris is still incomplete, and it is important that limited existing resources are integrated into the investigation of marine debris. Taking other countries as examples, the United States Government created the interagency Task Force on Persistent Marine Debris and passing the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act in 1980s. Furthermore, the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee (IMDCC) is established in 2004 to strengthen the coordination among agencies. The IMDCC provides the mechanism to ensure that these agencies increase their coordination to address marine debris (NOAA, 2012). In addition, many research organizations and institutions, NGOs, and yacht sailors conducted marine debris monitoring while at sea. Their efforts are supported by agencies in the U.S. Federal government such as EPA and NOAA. For Korea, since 1999, Korea has developed strategies and measures to address marine debris. Korea proposed individual plans in 2003, including the Practical Integrated System for Marine Debris that proposed 4 innovative devices (Jung et al., 2010). Drawing from these aforementioned national practices, Taiwan could exploit existing research vessels from the Fisheries Research Institute, Coast Guard Administration patrol boats, and other official boats to coordinate with current public affairs groups

Please cite this article in press as: Kuo, F.-J., Huang, H.-W. Strategy for mitigation of marine debris: Analysis of sources and composition of marine debris in northern Taiwan. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.019

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to investigate marine debris in surrounding waters. Moreover, the government of Taiwan could employ trawl boats to survey submarine debris, encourage fishermen to bring back salvaged marine debris, and also develop or introduce equipments for investigating and processing marine debris. 5. Conclusion In this study, we conducted a detailed investigation of coastal debris in the most densely populated area in northern Taiwan by analyzing the variation in this debris with respect to seasons, topographies, compositions, and types of debris. This study is the first systematic investigation and analysis of marine debris in Taiwan on different topographies and during different seasons and tides. The results indicate that the amount of debris varies with site location, cleaning frequency, and the number of visitors, and no significant difference between seasons and tides. The diversity and amount of debris were found to be highest on rocky shorelines, where debris from recreation and fishing gear was relatively high and where the percentage of plastic, polystyrene and nylon debris was highest. The amount of debris was relatively low on sandy beaches and in fishing ports, where the cleaning frequency is high and the cleaning difficulty is low. Based on our analyses, it is suggested that the following actions be taken (1) Elimination: increase the cleaning frequency on rocky shores, install more trash bins, and strengthen law enforcement in coast areas; (2) Reduce: continue and reinforce the plastic-limit policy in Taiwan, and strengthen the promotion of bottle cap recycling; (3) Education: promote marine environmental education, with a goal of debris-free coasts, and organize beach-cleaning activities to reduce the debris caused by the recreational population; (4) Recycle: to encourage fishermen to recycle fishing gear and to turn that gear into energy sources; and (5) Research: collaboration between agencies and combine marine research vessels and coastal patrols to establish a supervisory mechanism to observe and control marine debris. References Baird, R.W., Hooker, S.K., 2000. Ingestion of plastic and unusual prey by a juvenile Harbour Porpoise. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 40, 719–720. Bugoni, L., Krause, L.g., Virgı´nia Petry, M., 2001. Marine debris and human impacts on sea turtles in southern Brazil. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 42, 1330–1334. Carpenter, E.J., Anderson, S.J., Harvey, G.R., Miklas, H.P., Peck, B.B., 1972. Polystyrene spherules in coastal waters. Science 178, 749–750. Central Weather Bureau, 2013. Analysis of Taiwan Seasonal Weather (in Chinese). http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V7/climate/climate_info/monitoring/ monitoring_3.html. Chen, C.-L., Liu, T.-K., 2013. Fill the gap: developing management strategies to control garbage pollution from fishing vessels. Marine Policy 40, 34–40. Chinese Diving Promotion Association, Chinese Diving Association, 2002. Report of Monitoring of artifical reefs and cleanup of ghost nets in 2002 (in Chinese). Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. Chinese Taipei Diving Association, Chinese Society of Natural Photography, Chinese Underwater Activities Association, 2003. Report of Monitoring of artifical reefs and cleanup of ghost nets in 2003 (in Chinese). Fisheries Agency, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan. Cole, M., Lindeque, P., Halsband, C., Galloway, T.S., 2011. Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: A review. Marine Pollution Bulletin 62, 2588–2597. Dameron, O.J., Parke, M., Albins, M.A., Brainard, R., 2007. Marine debris accumulation in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: an examination of rates and processes. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 54, 423–433. Derraik, J.G.B., 2002. The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 44, 842–852. Desforges, J.-P.W., Galbraith, M., Dangerfield, N., Ross, P.S., 2014. Widespread distribution of microplastics in subsurface seawater in the NE Pacific Ocean. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 79, 94–99. Dong-Oh, C., 2009. The incentive program for fishermen to collect marine debris in Korea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 58, 415–417. Doong, D.-J., Chuang, H.-C., Shieh, C.-L., Hu, J.-H., 2011. Quantity, distribution, and impacts of coastal driftwood triggered by a typhoon. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 62, 1446– 1454.

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