Marine Beach Litter Monitoring in the Russian Arctic

O. P. Netsvetaeva

Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Russian Arctic National Park, Arkhangelsk, Russia

* e-mail: melob@bk.ru

Abstract

The remote and uninhabited islands of the Russian Arctic National Park, as many other coastal areas, are polluted with marine litter. It has become clear from surveys performed by various stakeholders in cooperation with the National Park. The purpose of this paper is to study marine litter pollution on the islands of the Russian Arctic National Park, and to demonstrate the Park's capabilities and intentions regarding this type of research. During the 2019–2021 field seasons, marine litter was collected and registered mainly by the Park's own staff on a network of representative beaches. These beaches are at Cape Zhelaniya (Severny Island of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago), Alexandra Land and Bell Island (Franz Josef Land). Over the years, the MSFD and OSPAR methods have been tested. The cleanup results for three years showed that the composition and amount of the collected marine litter items varies greatly from beach to beach. However, plastic items dominate significantly over other categories and make up over 80 %. Fishery is one of the most important sources of pollution of the studied beaches with marine litter.

Keywords

marine litter, plastic, Russian Arctic, Barents Sea, monitoring

Acknowledgments

The publication was prepared under science topic of Russian Arctic National Park no. 1-22-119-3. It based on the results of marine litter cleanups. The author is grateful for this data to Deputy Director for Research I. A. Mizin, state inspectors A. S. Morev, V. S. Zakharyin, O. V. Valkov, D. A. Barashnin (Russian Arctic National Park); A. A. Ershova, I. A. Krutikov (Russian State Hydrometeorological University), E. N. Basalai (The Polesie Agrarian Ecological Institute of the NAS of Belarus).

For citation

Netsvetaeva, O.P., 2022. Marine Beach Litter Monitoring in the Russian Arctic. Ecological Safety of Coastal and Shelf Zones of Sea, (4), pp. 69–78. doi:10.22449/2413-5577-2022-4-69-78

DOI

10.22449/2413-5577-2022-4-69-78

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