Abstract:
The present research is focused on composition, density, distribution and identification of accumulative areas of floating marine litter (FML) in the Bulgarian Black Sea coastal, shelf and offshore waters. Macro-debris abundances were determined in compliance with MSFD protocol for visual observations based on fixed-width strip transect method. Six floating litter monitoring surveys were carried out between 2017 and 2019. Over 144 hours of visual observations were performed in a total of 288 transects, covering an overall survey area of 7.52 km2 . 1320 litter items were identified and classified during the campaigns of which 90% were detected as plastic materials. The presence of floating debris was observed throughout the entire study area with density ranging from 0 to 1750 items km-2 and average density of 170 items km-2. Unexpectedly marine litter concentration patterns were evenly distributed among the studied regions with some specifics at certain sites.