Thompson recreational beach in the Paraná River (Entre Ríos Province, Argentina)

By Dr. Martín C.M. Blettler

National Institute of Limnology (INALI; CONICET-UNL).
Department of Hydro-ecology.
Ciudad Universitaria (3000), Santa Fe, Argentina
Phone/fax.: +54 342 4511645/48 - 107
mblettler@inali.unl.edu.ar
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Martin_Blettler/contributions
The following protocol arises from the urgent need to obtain scientific data about macro-
plastic pollution (plastic pieces >2.5 cm) in freshwater environments worldwide, particularly
in developing countries. This protocol is based on the Marine Debris Monitoring and
Assessment (NOAA Technical Memorandum; Lippiatt et al. 2013) for shoreline sediments,
modified by Blettler et al. (2017).

Selection of the sampling area

Select at least one riverine beach (or bank) of your interest. The selected sampling area
should be representative of the local plastic pollution.

Background information of the study area

Before arrival at the selected place:
1) Record your name, affiliation and date.
2) Name of the river and location (province, country).
3) River hydrological stage (high, mid or lower stage; m), average annual discharge,
selected shoreline side (left or right bank).
4) Distance to the nearest city/industries upstream, or any other potential source of
pollution.

Upon arrival at the site:

1) Record GPS coordinates in decimal degree format.
2) Identify human structures/influences in the vicinity of the sampling area (presence of
breakwaters, groynes, wastewater discharge points, factories, open sewers and dumps, etc).
3) Describe natural morphological characteristics (river effluents and tributaries,
confluences, meanders, gullies, hills, beach extension, type of dominant sediments, etc).
4) Describe land use in the vicinity (agriculture, pastoralism, forestry, etc) as well as water
uses in the area (drinking water, recreational activities, fishing activities, etc).

Macro-plastic sampling
1) Select at least two sampling transects of 50 m in length and 5 m wide in the site (250 m2)
in parallel to the water line (Noik and Tuah 2015). Note: if the amount of plastics is too
high (extremely polluted areas), reduce the transect size to 25 m in length and 3 m wide in
order to avoid excessive efforts.
2) Collect macroplastic items visually from each transect and storage them in bags.
3) Count and classify each plastic piece according to the following table:

Macro-plastic type/use Number of items Area/volume/length* Weight

Bags (shopping bags, etc)
Food wrappers (packages of cookies, rice, etc)
Beverage bottles
Bottle caps
Disposable hard food container (plastic tray, etc)
Disposable tableware products (glass, plate, spoon,
etc)
Straw and Stirrer
Disposable foam food containers/cups (clam shell,
etc)
Foam sponge for packing (for TV, mobiles, etc)
Strapping Bands
Cleaning product bottles (detergent, floor cleaner)
Personal care product containers (shampoo, etc)
Disposable cigarette lighters
Toys
Personal care products (combs, toothbrush, etc)
Medical products (blister packs, etc)
Rope (polyester cloth, etc)
Fish lines/nets
Others
* According to the item (e.g. for a piece of fish net the volume and area are negligible, but
length is significant; for a bag volume and length are negligible, but area is significant and
so on).

Recommendations: i) measures should be estimated approximately; ii) wash and dry

collected plastic debris before to weight them.

Photographic record
1) Take general pictures of the side (landscape pictures) considering “upon arrival at the
site” recommendations.
2) Take specific pictures of the selected transects and collected plastic debris.
3) Take particular pictures that you want to highlight (e.g. very old plastic pieces, unusual
plastic debris, or anything that call your attention).
4) Take particular pictures of biotic-plastic interactions (e.g. plastic used to build bird nests,
animals tangled in plastic, mollusk of any other organism attached to plastic pieces, etc)

Used literature
Blettler M.; Ulla M. A.; Rabuffetti, A. P. and Garello N. 2017. Plastic pollution in freshwater
ecosystems: macro-, meso-, and microplastic debris in a floodplain lake. Environ.
Monit. Assess. 189:581.
Lippiatt, S., Opfer, S., and Arthur, C. 2013. Marine Debris Monitoring and Assessment.
NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS-OR&R-46.
Noik V.J. and P.M. Tuah. (2015). A First Survey on the Abundance of Plastics Fragments
and Particles on Two Sandy Beaches in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. IOP Conf.
Series: Materials Science and Engineering 78 012035 doi:10.1088/1757-
899X/78/1/012035.