Who’s Responsible? Issues in Eradicating Marine Litter In Aceh Jaya Regency

¹ Departement of Marine Science, Fisheries and Marine Science Faculty, Teuku Umar University, West Aceh Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia
² Departement of agrotechnology, Agriculture Faculty, Teuku Umar University, West Aceh Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia
³ Marine Science and Fishery Faculty, Raja Ali Haji Maritime University, Indonesia
⁴ Marine Science and Fishery Faculty, Bogor Agricultural Institute, Bogor, Indonesia
⁵ Department of State Administrations, Social and Political Sciences Faculty, Teuku Umar University, West Aceh Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: ikakusumawati@utu.ac.id

Abstract

Marine debris is any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment. Debris problem in coastal areas becomes an urgent issue and concerns many countries across the world particularly marine countries such as Indonesia. The research objective was to examine the people's perception towards marine litter in Aceh Jaya Regency about whom responsible for eradicating marine debris. The study was conducted from January to July 2019 by distributing a questionnaire to 382 respondents. The result showed that 46.9% of respondents thought that they were responsible for reducing marine litter. In a similar case, researchers found 53.4% of respondents stated that those who were able to reduce marine waste were community/visitors. The final finding is that 42.1% of the sample shows that NGOs are the parties who are eager to reduce marine litter.