A new study done by our group member Dr Ferhat Büyükdeveci has recently been published in Marine Pollution Bulletin. According to the results, 75% of the total benthic marine litter found in Iskenderun Bay is single-use plastics! In this paper, we investigated the composition of marine debris in the Iskenderun Bay seafloor. Between November 2009 and April 2010, a total of 34 trawl operations were conducted. Hauls lasted 60–385 min, and the towing speed varied between 2.7 and 2.8 knots. The estimated average marine litter concentration was 450.94 item/km2 (90.34 kg/km2). Plastic was the dominant material type (87%) at all stations. Single-use plastic items represented about 74.9% of the total marine litter. Our results showed that there is severe plastic pollution on the seafloor of Iskenderun Bay that may cause significant damage to both the fisheries sector and the marine environment.
For the full paper please click here!