The Spanish Association of Marine Litter (AEBAM) convened representatives from different sectors at the event “International Forum on Marine Litter and Circular Economy (MARLICE 2019) to determine lines of action regarding the management and control of marine litter in protected areas, paying special attention to the development and implementation of strategies and plans for the conservation and recovery of species of community and state interest.

The Spanish Association of Marine Litter (AEBAM) was a beneficiary in the 2018 Call for Grants with the project “International Forum on Marine Litter and Circular Economy (MARLICE 2019), Axis 4: Awareness, conservation and citizen science”. Its purpose was to determine lines of action for the management and control of marine litter in protected areas; paying special attention to the development and implementation of strategies and plans for the conservation and recovery of species of community and state interest.

Thanks to this project, Citizen Science, conservation and participation have been highlighted in an international forum of great impact, the International Forum on Marine Litter and Circular Economy (MARLICE2019), coordinated by the Spanish Association of Marine Litter. It was attended by 250 people from 30 countries, from different sectors with the common objective of fighting against marine pollution caused by marine litter.

As part of the project, a demonstration action has been carried out in the surroundings of the SPA “Red and Odiel Marine Space”, in the province of Huelva. In this, it has been possible to contrast the application of official marine litter monitoring protocols with the collaboration of 80 participants. During the day, more than 650 objects were characterized on 400 m of beach, mostly plastic material. To this end, 3 monitoring methodologies were used simultaneously, through Citizen Science, applied at national and international level: a data card of marine litter on beaches, from the Citizen Science Program on marine litter of the Ministry for Ecological Transition, prepared within the framework of the Spanish Marine Strategies; a MARNOBA app, by Asociación Vertidos Cero, which applies a methodology adapted to this data sheet and the Protocol adapted from SurfriderEurope (Ocean Initiatives) of the Marine Litter Watch of the European Environment Agency. The comparison of the results obtained through the three methodologies revealed the harmonization between them.

The garbage collected during the day was made up of plastic objects (78%), followed by others (8%), where textile objects, hygienic-sanitary waste (5%), worked wood (4%), metal (2.5%), paper and cardboard (1.5%) and glass (1%) stood out. The most frequent objects were ropes, ropes and twine, unidentifiable plastic fragments, plastic bags and fragments, packaging tapes, food containers, bottle caps, nets and pots, clothing and other textile materials, and single-use plastic objects, such as cups and straws.

This amount of waste concluded that most of it comes from terrestrial sources, so the first lines of strategic action must begin with solutions focused on the terrestrial and riverine environment. For a joint action of the participating entities and sectors, a training and networking session was developed, as part of axis 4 of the forum at the Seville Aquarium.