Assessment of marine litter on Morocco’s Mediterranean beaches

¹ Laboratory of Applied and Marine Geosciences, Geotechnics and Geohazards (LR3G), Faculty of Sciences, University of Abdelmalek Essaadi, Tetouan 93000, Morocco
² National Laboratory for Pollution Studies and Monitoring (LNESP), Rabat, Morocco
³ Marchica Observatory, Nador, Department of Sustainable Development, Morocco
⁴ Laboratory OLMAN-BPGE, Multidisciplinary Faculty of Nador, Mohamed First University, Oujda, Morocco
⁵ Association des Enseignants des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre-Section Tanger, Tanger, Morocco

^* Corresponding author: abdeslam.abid@etu.uac.ac.ma; ab.abdeslam@yahoo.fr

Abstract

Marine litter pollution is one of the world’s major environmental challenges. In the Mediterranean, marine litter on beaches is mainly generated by tourism and recreational activities. The present study is part of an "Adopt-a-Beach" pilot project, initiated as part of the Marine Litter MED (ML MED) project, coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP/MAP. The main objective of this work was to assess and quantify marine litter on four beaches along Morocco’s Mediterranean coast (Merkala Tanger, Amsa Tetouan, Sabadia Al Hoceima, and Miami Nador) over a seasonal cycle during 2018–2019, in line with UNEP/MAP guidelines. On average, 1768 items/100 m were collected from the four beaches, with a density of 0.34 items/m2. "Plastic/polystyrene" was the main component of the total debris collected, accounting for 74.1% in number of items, followed by "paper/cardboard" at 6.4%. The dominant categories of top 10 items were "plastic/polystyrene pieces < 50 cm" (G76), "cigarette butts and filters" (G27), "plastic caps and lids" (G21/24), and "crisps packets/sweets wrappers" (G30/31) that all comprised 49.9% of the total items. Tourism and recreational wastes were the most represented sources at 52%.