Marine Pollution Bulletin 160 (2020) 111692

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Marine Pollution Bulletin

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul

Marine debris in Moroccan Mediterranean beaches: An assessment of their T

abundance, composition and sources
Bilal Mghili , Mohamed Analla, Mustapha Aksissou, Chaimae Aissa
⁎

Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology, Tetouan, Morocco

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Morocco is well known for its attractive Mediterranean beaches, which play an important economic role. With
Marine litter the fast development and growth, these beaches have become more contaminated by marine debris. This paper
Beach litter examined the abundance, composition and marine debris sources on five beaches in the Moroccan
Plastic Mediterranean during 2019 four seasons. A total of 7839 marine debris were collected from the five beaches
Mediterranean Sea
with a total weight of 231 kg. The average density of the debris collected was 0.20 ± 0.098 items/m2. Polymer
Morocco
materials constituted the majority of debris found, with a percentage of 71.36%, followed by paper/cardboard
(11.50%), metal (5.77%), processed wood (5.34%), cloth/textile (2.51%) and glass/ceramics (1.76%). Human
recreational activities were the main source of debris (70.13%), followed by smoking-related (13.98%). Debris
density appears to be particularly influenced by beach users. Awareness campaigns are needed for beach users to
improve the quality of the beaches.

1. Introduction in the world due to environmental and economic pressures (Barnes

Accumulation of marine debris in the ocean is a increasing problem
around the world. In recent decades, the oceans have become a
dumping for waste produced by human activities. Each year, an esti-
mated 4 to 12 million tons of plastic enter the world oceans (Jambeck
et al., 2015). Marine debris affects many animals such as marine
mammals, fish and seabirds through ingestion and entanglement and
can induce significant modifications in marine ecosystems through the
introduction of invasive species (Kühn et al., 2015; Gall and Thompson,
2015). In addition, this debris has negative impacts on socio-economic
activities such as the decrease in the recreational values of beaches, the
loss of revenue from the tourism industry, the effect of floating debris
on navigation and the high cost of clean-up (CIESM, 2014). Kauffman
and Brown (1991) showed that more than US$1 million was spent in
1988 and 1989 cleaning up the coasts of Santa Monica and Long Beach
in California. Mouat et al. (2010) reported that approximately $18
million was spent per year to remove of beach waste in the United
Kingdom, while in the Netherlands and Belgium, the annual costs for
beach clean-up operations is $10.4 million. Finally, Ariza et al. (2008a)
reported that the average annual declared investment for beach
cleaning and conservation by each municipality along the Catalan coast
in Spain was $133,113.
The Mediterranean Sea is the region most affected by marine debris
et al., 2009). In addition, the Mediterranean Sea has a limited exchange
of water through the Strait of Gibraltar with the Atlantic Ocean
(Bergmann et al., 2015). In the Mediterranean, the total quantity of
municipal solid waste exceeds 208-760 kg/person/year (UNEP, 2009),
with more than 62 million of floating marine debris (Suaria and Aliani,
2014). In recent years, many studies have been conducted to assess the
abundance, composition and source of debris in the Mediterranean
(Munari et al., 2016; Alshawafi et al., 2017; Asensio-Montesinos et al.,
2019; Vlachogianni et al., 2019). Nevertheless, studies on marine litter
in the Mediterranean are still inconsistent and geographically limited in
some places. Monitoring programs are useful to increase knowledge on
marine litter and to develop effective management strategies.
The Moroccan Mediterranean region has experienced over the past
decades an important development in many sectors including, tourism,
fishing, industry, agriculture and construction. It is the principal re-
cipient of the different types of discharges (Nakhli, 2010). During the
last years, several studies have evaluated the abundance, composition,
and source of marine debris along the Moroccan Mediterranean
(Williams and Khattabi, 2015; Alshawafi et al., 2017; Nachite et al.,
2018; Maziane et al., 2018; Nachite et al., 2019; Loulad et al., 2019).
On the Atlantic coast, Velez et al. (2019) studied the quantities of
marine debris on four Moroccan beaches. The variability in the abun-
dance of marine litter during the four seasons has not been sufficiently

⁎
Corresponding author at: Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology, P O Box 2121, M'Hannech II, 93030 Tetouan, Morocco.
E-mail address: b.mghili@uae.ac.ma (B. Mghili).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111692
Received 30 July 2020; Received in revised form 15 September 2020; Accepted 15 September 2020
Available online 22 September 2020
0025-326X/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
B. Mghili, et al.
Fig. 1. Location, typology and beach length studied in the Moroccan Mediterranean Sea.
studied in Morocco.
The objective of this study was to determine the abundance, com-
position, spatial and temporal distribution of marine debris on five
tourist beaches along the Moroccan Mediterranean and to identify
possible sources of debris in order to establish effective strategies for
managing this type of pollution.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
The Moroccan Mediterranean coastline extends 512 km, from
Tangier in the west to Saidia in the east. Five sandy beaches located in
the northwest of Morocco were selected for this study (Fig. 1): (1)
Tangier, (2) Ksar Sghir, (3) Fnideq, (4) Martil, (5) Oued Laou. The study
area is an important tourist region attracting millions of Moroccan and
international tourists. These five beaches are regularly visited by
tourists during the summer and some are frequently visited all seasons
(Tangier, Fnideq and Martil). Several rivers directly discharge their
contents in the study area; the Martil river (35 km long), the Oued Laou
river (65 km long) and a small river is discharged in the Ksar Sghir
beach.
The morpho-dynamic condition of the five beaches is dissipative.
The sediments are composed of fine, medium and coarse sand. The tidal
regime is semi-diurnal and tidal gradient decreases towards the East. It
passes through a medium spring tidal range of 2 m in Tangier, at the
West, to 0.3 m in Saïdia at the East (Nachite et al., 2018). The study
area is subject to a seasonal wind system: dominant winds blow from
the west to the southwest in winter and from the east to the northeast in
summer.
The typologies of the five beaches were evaluated according to the
approach proposed by Williams and Micallef (2009). The abundance,
composition and source of marine debris were assessed on three urban
beaches (Tangier, Fnideq and Martil, Fig. 1) and two village beaches
(Ksar Sghir and Oued Laou, Fig. 1).
2
Marine Pollution Bulletin 160 (2020) 111692
2.2. Survey method
In all five beaches, the sampling unit was determined, corre-
sponding to a fixed station of 100 m in length and 20 m in width to-
wards the back of the beach. The limits of each sampling station were
determined by GPS to assure that the same stations were sampled for all
four surveys. These beaches are cleaned only in summer by the muni-
cipalities. In order to minimize the bias that could be caused by
cleaning operations, debris was collected prior to clean-up activities.
Surveys were conducted in all four seasons: winter (march), spring
(april), summer (august) and autumn (november). No sampling was
carried out on Ksar Sghir beach during the winter.
All marine debris larger than 2.5 cm in diameter was collected at
each station and placed in separate plastic bags. The results of the
monitoring were presented on data cards of Galgani et al. (2013), that
identified 165 types of debris classified into seven categories; Polymer
materials, rubber, cloth/textile, paper/cardboard, metal, glass/cera-
mics, processed/worked wood. Marine debris in each category was
counted and weighed by a portable scale at each station in their wet or
dry conditions.
2.3. Data analysis and processing
Debris density was calculated using the formula of Lippiatt et al.
(2013): CM = n / (w ∗ l), where CM is the density of debris per m2; “n”
is the number of marine debris collected; “w” and “l” are the width (m)
and length (m) of the sample station, respectively.
The cleanliness of the five beaches was calculated using the Clean
Coast Index (CCI) (Alkalay et al., 2007): CCI = CM ∗ K, where CM is the
density of marine debris per m2; and “K” is a constant equal to 20.
According to the CCI scale: values from 0 to 2 mean very clean, 2–5
clean, 5–10 moderately clean, 10–20 dirty and > 20 extremely dirty.
The formula for calculating “CM” and the index (CCI) have also been
used in many recent studies (Kalnasa et al., 2019; Cruz et al., 2020;
Rangel-Buitrago et al., 2020).
The sources of debris collected were determined by the
International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) method (Ocean Conservancy,
B. Mghili, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 160 (2020) 111692

(beverage, 2.52%).

3.2. Marine debris density and clean-coast index

In five coastal beaches, the mean density of marine debris was

Fig. 2. Percentages composition of marine debris collected on the five beaches,
sorted by type.
2010). This method divides the debris into five sources: shoreline/re-
creational, smoking related, dumping, ocean/waterway and medical/
personal hygiene activities.
3. Results
3.1. Composition of marine debris
A total of 7839 marine debris were collected during surveys carried
out on five Moroccan Mediterranean beaches (Fig. 2). The total weight
of debris was 231 kg. A total of 68% of the debris is plastic. The results
of the surveys on the five beaches showed the great predominance of
category: Polymer materials (71.36%). The second most abundant ca-
tegory of debris in the study area was paper/cardboard (11.50%), fol-
lowed by metal (5.77%), processed/worked wood (5.34%), cloth/tex-
tile (2.51%) and glass/ceramics (1.76%). The rubber category
accounted for 0.35% of the total 7839 debris collected. By weight, the
glass/ceramics category was the most abundant, occupying 26.86% of
the total weight, followed by processed/worked wood (24.92%).
The top 10 debris categories accounted for 63.80% of the total
debris collected and were almost all plastic (84.66%, Table 1). Crisps
packets/sweets wrappers (G30) were the main type of debris in quan-
tity (1034 items) and represented the highest percentage of 13.19% of
the total debris recorded, followed by cigarette butts (G27) with
11.92%. The third most common debris were plastic pieces 2.5 cm >
< 50 cm (G79) which constituted for 11.50% of the total debris re-
corded, followed by plastic caps/lids drinks (G21) which accounted for
8.06%. The fifth most abundant debris is other wood < 50 cm which
represented for 3.72% of the total debris, followed by drink bottles
≤0.5 l (3.59%), paper fragments (3.53%), food containers incl. fast
food containers (3.08%), shopping bags incl. pieces (2.65%) and cans
0.20 ± 0.098 items/m2 and 6.4 ± 4.09 g/m2 by weight with im-
portant differences in abundance and composition between the beaches
studied (Table 2). The number of debris collected ranged from 166
items at Oued Laou (no. 5, Fig. 1) to a maximum of 924 items at Tangier
beach (no. 1, Fig. 1). The total density of debris in Tangier beach is high
compared to the density found in the other beaches, the average
number of the debris is 0.27 items/m2 (554 items/100 m). The second
highest density was observed at Martil beach (no. 4, Fig. 1) with an
average of 0.25 items/m2 (518 items/100 m), followed by Fnideq (no.
3, Fig. 1) with 0.19 items/m2 (386 items/100 m), Oued Laou (no. 5,
Fig. 1) with 0.15 items/m2 (315 items/100 m) and Ksar Sghir (no. 2,
Fig. 1) with 0.12 items/m2 (247 items/100 m). The abundance of debris
varies according to the typology of the beaches. The cleanest beaches
are found in village areas (Ksar Sghir and Oued Laou), the dirtiest
beaches are observed in urbanized areas (Tangier, Fnideq and Martil).
The abundance of debris showed significant variations between the four
seasons of the year (Table 2). In the five beaches, summer was the
season when debris densities were highest, while the lowest densities
were observed in spring. Debris collected in the summer showed a
predominance of crisps packets/sweets wrappers, cigarette butts,
plastic pieces 2.5 cm > < 50 cm. Some categories of debris, such as
processed/worked wood and glass/Ceramics were found in higher
quantities in winter.
CCI was calculated for all five beaches (Table 2). The values ob-
tained are generally low and the cleanliness of these beaches ranging
from very clean to moderately clean. The lowest CCI value was re-
corded in spring and autumn, while the highest CCI values were ob-
served in summer and winter. Tangier and Martil beaches (no. 1 and 4,
Fig. 1) were found to be moderately clean in winter and summer and
clean in spring and autumn. Fnideq and Oued Laou beaches (no. 3 and
5, Fig. 1) were classified as moderately clean in winter, clean and very
clean in the other seasons. Ksar Sghir beach (no. 2, Fig. 1) was the least
polluted and it was considered very clean in spring and autumn and
clean in summer.
3.3. Sources of marine debris
The sources of debris in the five beaches were shown in Fig. 3. In the
five beaches, the main source of marine debris was shoreline/recrea-
tional activities (70.13%) linked to debris such as Crisps packets/sweets
wrappers, plastic, paper bags, plastic cups and food wrappers. They
were followed by smoking-related activities (13.98%), followed by
dumping activities (6.32%). Approximately 3.04% of the waste was
produced by ocean/waterway, while 1.23% was generated by medical/
personal hygiene.

Table 1
Top 10 debris collected on the five beaches studied.
No Material type Code Items name Items counts % Items

1 Artificial polymer G30 Crisps packets/sweets wrappers 1034 13.19

2 Artificial polymer G27 Cigarette butts and filters 935 11.92
3 Artificial polymer G79 Plastic pieces 2.5 cm > < 50 cm 902 11.50
4 Artificial polymer G21 Plastic caps/lids drinks 632 8.06
5 Processed/worked wood G171 Other wood < 50 cm 292 3.72
6 Artificial polymer G7 Drink bottles ≤0.5 l 282 3.59
7 Paper/cardboard G156 Paper fragments 277 3.53
8 Artificial polymer G10 Food containers incl.fast food containers 242 3.08
9 Artificial polymer G3 Shopping bags incl. pieces 208 2.65
10 Metal G175 Cans (beverage) 198 2.52

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B. Mghili, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 160 (2020) 111692

Table 2
Marine debris densities (items/m2 and g/m2) and Clean-coast ndex (CCI) on the five Moroccan Mediterranean beaches.
Stations (beaches) Mean (SD) Winter Spring Summer Autumn

2 2 2 2 a 2 2 2 2
Items/m g/m Items/m g/m CCI Items/m g/m CCI Items/m g/m CCI Items/m2 g/m2 CCI

Tangier 0.27 (0.13) 8.23 (3.2) 0.29 11.73 5.8 0.15 5.98 3 0.46 5.04 9.2 0.19 10.2 3.8
Ksar Sghir 0.12 (0.05) 4.24 (3.01) – – – 0.08 3.08 1.6 0.19 2.04 3.8 0.095 7.69 1.9
Fnideq 0.19 (0.10) 6.10 (4.9) 0.24 13.34 4.8 0.10 4.52 2 0.32 2.31 6.4 0.10 4.24 2
Martil 0.25 (0.10) 6.53 (5.7) 0.31 15.16 6.2 0.14 3.83 2.8 0.37 3.45 7.4 0.20 3.69 4
Oued Laou 0.15 (0.08) 4.86 (3.18) 0.18 9.07 3.6 0.09 5.59 1.8 0.26 2.29 5.2 0.083 2.5 1.6
Mean 0.25 12.32 0.11 4.59 0.32 3.02 0.13 5.66
SD 0.05 2.58 0.03 1.21 0.10 1.25 0.05 3.18
Overall mean 0.20 (0.09) 6.4 (4.09)

a
0–2 very clean, 2–5 clean, 5–10 moderately clean, 10–20 dirty and > 20 extremely dirty.

beaches of the Cádiz Province by Asensio-Montesinos et al. (2020).

Most of the debris found on Moroccan Mediterranean beaches come
from shoreline/recreational activities (70.13%, Fig. 3). These results
Other

Ocean/waterway acvies are in line with the finding obtained from other surveys in the Mor-
occan Mediterranean, which found that beach users are the main source
of debris (Alshawafi et al., 2017; Nachite et al., 2019). The percentage
Medical/personal hygiene

Dumping acvies of shoreline/recreational activities recorded in this paper were lower

Smoking- related acvies
Shoreline & recreaonal acvies
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Fig. 3. Sources of marine debris collected on the five Moroccan Mediterranean
beaches.
4. Discussion
4.1. Composition and sources of marine debris
This study revealed the dominance of certain categories that con-
stitute the majority of the debris collected, as has been observed on
other Mediterranean beaches (Munari et al., 2016; Vlachogianni et al.,
2018; Nachite et al., 2019; Asensio-Montesinos et al., 2019). The most
common debris found in the five Moroccan Mediterranean beaches was
plastic (Fig. 2). Our proportions are conform to the results of studies
conducted in the Moroccan Mediterranean, which indicated that the
vast majority of marine debris is plastic (Alshawafi et al., 2017;
Maziane et al., 2018; Nachite et al., 2018; Nachite et al., 2019). A si-
milar result was found in most of the studies conducted in the Medi-
terranean beaches: Turkey (Topçu et al., 2013); North-western Adriatic,
Italy (Munari et al., 2016); Adriatic and Ionian Sea beaches
(Vlachogianni et al., 2018); Alicante Province, Spain (Asensio-
Montesinos et al., 2019); and in studies carried out on beaches around
the world, such as New Taipei City, Taiwan (Kuo and Huang, 2014);
Marina beach Chennai, India (Kumar et al., 2016); Great Barrier Reef,
Australia (Wilson and verlis, 2017); North Atlantic islands (Ríos et al.,
2018) and the beaches of Arraial do Cabo, Brazil (Lopes da Silva et al.,
2018). The second most important category was cigarette butts
(Table 2, Fig. 3), as has been observed in the Moroccan Mediterranean
beaches by Maziane et al. (2018) and Nachite et al. (2019). On Spanish
beaches, cigarette butts are also the most abundant type of beach litter
item (Martinez-Ribes et al., 2007; Williams et al., 2016; Asensio-
Montesinos et al., 2019). Cigarette butts are locally generated debris,
produced by beach users, but they may come from other places and
arrive through the sewage system, streams and rivers.
Despite the intensity of fishing activities in the study area, fisheries-
related debris was low and constituted only 3% of the total debris
collected. A similar result was observed on other Mediterranean bea-
ches (Asensio-Montesinos et al., 2019; Nachite et al., 2019). This per-
centage was also observed near Morocco, specifically on the Atlantic
than those obtained on the Atlantic beaches of Cádiz (Asensio-
Montesinos et al., 2020), Montenegro beaches and Bosnia and Herze-
govina beaches (Vlachogianni et al., 2018). On the other hand, this
percentage was much higher than the Mediterranean average of 52%
60% 70%
(UNEP/MAP MEDPOL, 2011), the Adriatic-Ionian average of 37%
(Munari et al., 2016), and the global average of 68.2% (Ocean
Conservancy, 2011). Therefore, shoreline/recreational activities should
be controlled for effective debris management in the Moroccan Medi-
terranean beaches. Sewage-related debris is mainly composed by nap-
pies (40 items), cotton bud sticks (17 items), sanitary towels (1 item),
with a total of 58 items. Nappies were observed on all five beaches,
particularly on Martil and Fnideq beaches. The presence of these wastes
on the beaches constituted a danger for beach users (Sánchez Moreno
et al., 2019).
4.2. Spatial distribution and abundance of marine debris
The average litter density highlighted by our study (0.20 items/m2)
is higher than the average result obtained by Nachite et al. (2019) who
find an average value of 0.05 items/m2 for 14 beaches along the
Moroccan Mediterranean. The debris densities collected in the study
area were comparable to the average quantities recorded on the bea-
ches of Australia (Smith and Markic, 2013); North-western Adriatic,
Italy (Munari et al., 2016); Atlantic coast of Cádiz, Spain (Asensio-
Montesinos et al., 2020) and on the Albanian coast (Gjyli et al., 2020)
(Table 3). At the same time, the average density of debris was lower
than that found on the beaches of Turkish Western Black Sea Coast
(Topçu et al., 2013); Adriatic and Ionian Sea beaches (Vlachogianni
et al., 2018); beaches in Arraial do Cabo, Brazil (Lopes da Silva et al.,
2018); North Atlantic islands (Ríos et al., 2018), and the beaches of the
Northern Mediterranean countries (Vlachogianni et al., 2019). Beaches
in village areas appeared to be less polluted than urban beaches. The
composition of debris in urban beaches is very similar to that of village
beaches but they are different in density. The abundance of cigarette
butts varies according to the typology of beach, from 690 items on
urban beaches to 245 items on village beaches. The same trend was
observed for debris related to beach use (plastic pieces, crisps packets/
sweets wrappers, food containers, drink bottles, shopping bags, cans,
paper fragments and wrappers and trays), they were more abundant on
urban beaches and particularly frequent in summer. The urban beaches
(Tangier, Fnideq and Martil) are used during summer, autumn and
winter by the local population and Moroccan tourists, which is prob-
ably the source of debris accumulation. The village beaches (Oued Laou
and Ksar Sghir) were used for leisure activities only during the summer,

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B. Mghili, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 160 (2020) 111692

Table 3
Comparison of the density of marine debris in this study and in other areas of the world.
Study area No of surveyed beaches Average litter density (items/m2) Reference

Western Black Sea, Turkey 10 0.88 Topçu et al. (2013)

Australia 1 0.24 Smith and Markic (2013)
Taiwan 6 0.15 Kuo and Huang (2014)
North-western Adriatic coast, Italy 5 0.20 Munari et al. (2016)
Brazil 3 0.9 Lopes da Silva et al. (2018)
Islands of the North Atlantic 42 0.62 Ríos et al. (2018)
Adriatic and Ionian Seas, all countries 31 0.67 Vlachogianni et al. (2018)
Northern Mediterranean countries 23 0.61 Vlachogianni et al. (2019)
Cádiz, Spain 40 0.06 Asensio-Montesinos et al. (2020)
Morocco 14 0.054 Nachite et al. (2019)
Albania 5 0.14 Gjyli et al. (2020)
Morocoo 5 0.20 Present study

which may explain the lower densities of debris. Our study clearly
showed that the amount of debris is directly related to the number of
beach visitors. A similar trend was observed by Ariza et al. (2008b) and
Williams et al. (2016) in Spain and by Prevenios et al. (2018) on the
island of Corfu and in the Ionian Sea.
The differences in abundance between the five beaches are not only
due to human activity. Van Cauwenberghe et al. (2013) indicated that
the different levels of tourism are not significant enough to explain the
differences in the quantities of debris on the different beaches. The
study area is composed of large beaches (Tangier, Martil, Oued Laou)
and small beaches (Ksar Sghir and Fnideq), the sea surface has a major
influence on the place where marine debris are accumulated. In addi-
tion, tidal amplitude can also influence the abundance and distribution
of debris (Asensio-Montesinos et al., 2020). The tide decreases from
Tangier in the west to Oued Laou in the east. Tangier is located on the
Strait of Gibraltar, bordering both the Atlantic Ocean and the Medi-
terranean Sea and characterized by a high tidal amplitude, which are
probably the cause of higher density of accumulation, but this is not the
case for the beach Ksar Sghir (Strait of Gibraltar). The contribution of
Martil and Oued Laou rivers, highly contaminated could be another
reason for the accumulation of marine debris, especially in winter and
autumn. Proximity to rivers can also increase the density of debris on
nearby beaches (Rech et al., 2014). The role of the tide and the river in
the accumulation, transport, and distribution of debris should be the
subject of further research at Moroccan beaches. The presence of debris
on beaches depends on other factors such as the source of the debris,
proximity to urban areas, wind patterns, ocean currents, and physio-
graphic characteristics (Walker et al., 2006; Bauer et al., 2008).
4.3. Temporal variation of marine debris abundances
This study showed a difference in the seasonal pattern in the
abundance and weight of debris collected during the four seasons. The
seasonal variation shows that plastic dominates over the seasons but
with a remarkable increase in summer. A similar trend was observed in
the southeast of Spain by Asensio-Montesinos et al. (2019). Summer
showed the highest values for all categories of debris; the lowest values
were observed in spring and autumn. Galgani et al. (2013) reported that
the density of marine litter on beaches in summer can increase by up to
40%. Our results do not agree with Alshawafi et al. (2017), where the
amount of debris in winter was higher than in summer at Martil beach.
Ariza et al. (2008b) recorded a relatively constant debris density from
the end of July to the end of August in the Catalan coast. In the Black
Coast Sea, Topçu et al. (2013) observed a high density on autumn and
winter while Simeonova et al. (2017) recorded a higher density in
summer compared to other seasons. Analysis of the temporal variation
in debris density showed significant changes over the same part of the
beach (Hong et al., 2014; Agustin et al., 2015) up to a continental scale
(Schulz et al., 2015). Debris abundance is highly variable over time and
is strongly influenced by the local context of each study (Browne et al.,
2015). This variability is related to socio-economic aspects, such as
population growth, development of lifestyle, tourism and fishery ac-
tivity (Eastman et al., 2013).
CCI showed low variation across the study beaches. Except for Ksar
Sghir beach (Fig. 1, Table 2), all beaches are considered as moderately
clean in summer by the ICC. In winter, according to the CCI, Martil and
Tangier beach were considered moderately clean while Fnideq and
Oued Laou beach were considered clean (Fig. 1, Table 2). The origin of
the accumulation of large numbers of debris in the stations studied in
winter is probably related to climate. The study area is a microtidal
environment exposed to strong winds in winter (Molina et al., 2019).
High waves can bring some of the waste to the shoreline. Their increase
is also due to the absence of cleaning operations during the winter. All
five beaches are classified as very clean to clean in spring. On Medi-
terranean beaches, the lowest density of marine debris was observed in
spring is due to the low frequency of visitors (Asensio-Montesinos et al.,
2019).
5. Conclusions
This study provides important data on the presence, types and
sources of marine debris on Moroccan Mediterranean beaches. The
mean density found by our study is comparable to the density reported
by other studies in the Mediterranean region. This study showed high
spatial and seasonal variability, which reflete the unequal distribution
of debris across the five beaches. The surveys showed the highest values
for all categories of debris in the summer, the lowest values observed in
the spring. Seasonal differences in the density of debris are certainly
due to the various human activities that take place during the summer
season. Debris density also varies according to beach typology; urba-
nized beaches are more polluted by marine debris than village beaches.
Tourism seems to be the main source of marine debris on Moroccan
Mediterranean beaches. Although regular cleaning of beaches is ne-
cessary not solvent the litter problem. The primary focus is on the
control and management of debris discarded by beach users. Beach user
awareness programs could be very useful in reducing management
costs, improving beach health, and making beaches more attractive to
users. Morocco has announced the “Zeroplastic” project which will
come into force on 1 July 2016 to limit this type of pollution but there is
a problem with the implementation of this law. Better enforcement is
needed on beaches to prevent pollution and punish polluters. In
Morocco, efforts have to be addressed to the implementation of marine
debris recycling programs.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Bilal Mghili: Investigation, Methodology, Writing - original draft.
Mohamed Analla: Writing - review & editing, Data curation,
Validation. Mustapha Aksissou: Conceptualization, Supervision.
Chaimae Aissa: Investigation.

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B. Mghili, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 160 (2020) 111692

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