Table 1. Densities of ‘anthropogenic marine debris’ reported from beaches throughout the world. Adapted from Bravo et al. (2009).
| Country |
Number of surveyed beaches |
Average densities, items m-2 |
Maximum densities, items m-2 |
Reference |
| a These studies counted individual pellets of fragmented Styrofoam, an item usually not counted in most other studies. |
| Australia |
1 |
0.5 |
0.5 |
Foster-Smith et al., 2007 |
| Australia |
6 |
0.1 |
0.3 |
Cunningham and Wilson (2003) |
| Scotland |
16 |
0.4 |
2.3 |
Velander and Mocogni (1999) |
| Brazil |
2 |
0.7 |
2.1 |
Araújo et al. (2006) |
| Brazil |
10 |
0.14 |
ca.0.5 |
Oigman-Pszczol and Creed (2007) |
| Chile |
43 |
1.8 |
82.7 |
Bravo et al. (2009) |
| Indonesia |
21 |
4.6 |
- |
Evans et al. (1995) |
| Ireland |
1 |
0.2 |
- |
Benton (1995) |
| Israel |
6 |
- |
0.9 |
Bowman et al. (1998) |
| Japana |
34 |
45 |
280,000 |
Fujieda and Sasaki (2005) |
| Japana |
18 |
3.4 |
2,200 |
Kusui and Noda (2003) |
| Jordan |
3 |
4 |
7.4 |
Abu-Hilal and Al-Najjar (2004) |
| Oman |
11 |
ca. 0.4 |
ca. 0.9 |
Claereboudt (2004) |
| Panama |
19 |
3.6 |
- |
Garrity and Levings (1993) |
| Pitcairn Islands |
2 |
0.2 |
0.4 |
Benton (1995) |
| Russia |
8 |
0.2 |
16.7 |
Kusui and Noda (2003) |
Source:
GESAMP, 
Proceedings of the GESAMP International Workshop
on micro- plastic particles as a vector in transporting persistent, bio- accumulating and toxic substances in the oceans.
28-30th June 2010, UNESCO-IOC, 2.5. Sources and inputs of plastic waste to the marine environment, p. 16
Related publication:
Other Figures & Tables on this publication:
Table 1. Densities of ‘anthropogenic marine debris’ reported from beaches throughout the world. Adapted from Bravo et al. (2009).
Table 2. ‘Top ten’ marine debris items; adapted from UNEP (2009a), compiled from
annual ICC data reports, Center for Marine Conservation/Ocean Conservancy (1989-
2007).
Table 3. MARPOL 73/78, ANNEX V: summary of proposed amendments and permitted discharges.
Table 4. Timing for the first Regular Process assessment cycle (IOC-UNESCO,2009)
Fig. 2. Ocean regions considered in the Assessment of Assessments
