Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Marine Pollution Bulletin

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

Assessment of seabed litter in the Northern and Central Adriatic Sea T

(Mediterranean) over six years
P. Strafellaa, , G. Fabia, M. Despalatovicd, I. Cvitkovićd, T. Fortibuonib,f, A. Gomieroa,e,
⁎

S. Guicciardia, B. Marcetac, S. Raicevichb, A.N. Tassettia, A. Spagnoloa, G. Scarcellaa

a
National Research Council (CNR), Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology (IRBIM), L.go Fiera della Pesca, 2, 60125 Ancona, Italy
b
Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Via Ca' Fornacetta 9, 40064 Ozzano dell'Emilia, Bologna, Italy
c
Fisheries Research Institute of Slovenia (FRIS), Sp. Gameljne 61a, 1211 Ljubljana-Šmartno, Slovenia
d
Institut za Oceanografiju i Ribarstvo (IOF), Šetalište I. Meštrovic'a 63, 21000 Split, Croatia
e
Norwegian Research Centre-Norce, Environmental Dep., Mekjarvik 11, 4070 Randaberg, Norway
f
Institute of Oceanography Experimental Geophysics, Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/c, 34010 Sgonico, Trieste, Italy

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Seabed debris is much less investigated in respect to the sea surface and shores due to sampling difficulties and
Marine litter costs. However, detecting marine benthic litter is fundamental for developing policies aimed at achieving the
Adriatic Sea Good Environmental Status in European Seas by 2020, as requested by the Marine Strategy Framework
Spatial distribution Directive.
GIS
This study estimates seafloor litter abundance, composition, spatial distribution and main sources in the
Marine debris
Litter sources
North-Central Adriatic Sea (FAO GSA 17) over a six-year period (2011–2016) with 67 stations sampled per year,
representing the longest data set for the basin. Litter items collected using a “rapido” trawl were classified in six
major categories.
The average density of the litter collected over six years was 102.66 ± 41.91 kg/km2. The highest con-
centration of litter was found in stations close to the coast within 30 m depth with a mean weight of
142.90 ± 27.20 kg/km2, while the lowest value was recorded between 30 and 50 m of depth
(41.12 ± 9.62 kg/km2). Plastic was dominant followed by metal and other litter materials. Lost fishing nets and
mussel culture debris accounted for 50% of the overall plastic litter collected. These data and the systematic
monitoring of marine litter provide useful information to implement necessary measures to manage marine litter
and minimize this type of anthropogenic pollution in the Adriatic region.

1. Introduction
Marine litter issue has been overlooked for a long time as only since
1960 the scientific literature has started to address this problem and
discuss about its impacts and implications (Galgani et al., 2015; Ryan,
2015).
In the last decades the impacts of marine debris and their con-
sequences have been widely described so that it is now considered a
widespread world pollution problem and an important threat to en-
vironment and wildlife (UNEP, 2005, 2009, 2015; Sheavly and Register,
2007; Pham et al., 2014; Loulad et al., 2017). Indeed, marine litter
represents an ecological issue affecting from smallest marine species to
the marine trophic chain, as well as a social and an aesthetic problem
prejudging human safety and health (Islam and Tanaka, 2004; Sheavly
and Register, 2007; Gregory, 2009; Di Beneditto and Awabdi, 2014;
Vegter et al., 2014; Gall and Thompson, 2015).
The large amount of manufactured solid materials ending up into
the oceans, floating on the sea surface, drifting in the water column or
sinking on the seafloor from the shorelines to the deep sea, has become
one of the critical global challenges (G7, 2015; G20, 2017) because,
having no borders, this kind of pollutant affects all the seas from the
arctic areas to the equator (Ryan et al., 2009; Thompson et al., 2009;
Browne et al., 2011; Pham et al., 2014; Bergmann et al., 2015; Vinet
and Zhedanov, 2015; Williams et al., 2016).

Corresponding author.
⁎

E-mail addresses: pierluigi.strafella@an.ismar.cnr.it (P. Strafella), g.fabi@ismar.cnr.it (G. Fabi), mare@izor.hr (M. Despalatovic), cvite@izor.hr (I. Cvitković),
tomaso.fortibuoni@isprambiente.it (T. Fortibuoni), alessio.gomiero@iris.no (A. Gomiero), stefano.guicciardi@an.ismar.cnr.it (S. Guicciardi),
bojan.marceta@zzrs.si (B. Marceta), sasa.raicevich@isprambiente.it (S. Raicevich), nora.tassetti@an.ismar.cnr.it (A.N. Tassetti),
alessandra.spagnolo@ismar.cnr.it (A. Spagnolo), giuseppe.scarcella@an.ismar.cnr.it (G. Scarcella).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.12.054
Received 25 July 2018; Received in revised form 12 December 2018; Accepted 31 December 2018
Available online 16 February 2019
0025-326X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P. Strafella, et al.
Furthermore, marine litter composition and density can hugely
change between locations on the basis of winds, currents,
marine hydrodynamic and marine human activities (e.g. fishing)
(Barnes et al., 2009; Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2013; Lopez-Lopez et al.,
2017).
Marine debris comprises a lot of different materials among which
plastic litter was already known as a special issue since 1980s, being the
most represented marine litter category due to its resistance to de-
gradation and persistence in the environment (Derraik, 2002; Barnes
et al., 2009; Avio et al., 2017). The amount of plastic debris entering the
world oceans in 2010 was estimated between 4.8 and 12.7 million tons
and, nowadays, the real amount is not yet precisely assessed (Watkins
et al., 2015). Galgani et al. (2000) reported that plastic items accounted
over 70% of the total litter in the European marine regions in 1992–98
and fishing activity (e.g. nets, ropes, buoys, etc.) appears the most
important source of plastic debris at sea (Andrady, 2011; Strafella et al.,
2015; Moriarty et al., 2016; Buhl-Mortensen and Buhl-Mortensen,
2017, 2018; Grøsvik et al., 2018).
In the absence of specific policies, the worldwide marine litter
amount, and especially of plastic, is presumed to be rising with the
increasing of global population density and industrial production, be-
coming an increasingly important issue in the future (Kammann et al.,
2018).
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP, 2005) gave a
clear definition of marine debris as “any persistent, manufactured or
processed solid material discarded, disposed or abandoned into the
marine and coastal environment” and plastic, metal, glass, rubber,
wood and textile are the main categories settled in this definition.
The European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, 2008)
considers marine litter among the eleven qualitative descriptors to de-
fine the good environmental status (GES) of the European seas. Because
no tool to assess and evaluate the marine state was available in the
MSFD, a joint protocol of the International Bottom Trawl Surveys was
set up to standardize the marine litter data collection (ICES, 2012).
In spite of this, no coordinated regional or national monitoring
programs have been yet developed for assessing trends and spatial
distribution of marine litter in the EU seas and available data come
from spatially and temporally limited projects and studies, focussing on
other primary goals.
Most of these studies were conducted on beaches using item counts
along transects due to the easy data collection. The sea surface is
usually surveyed using the ship-based observation technique to quan-
tify and locate the floating debris, while only few studies describe
seafloor litter (Galgani et al., 2000; Pham et al., 2014; Strafella et al.,
2015; Moriarty et al., 2016; Pasquini et al., 2016; Rummel et al., 2016;
Buhl-Mortensen and Buhl-Mortensen, 2017, 2018; Grøsvik et al., 2018).
With regard to the Adriatic Sea, data on the seafloor litter derive
from voluntary divers, submersibles, remote operated vehicles and
trawl surveys (Galil et al., 1995; Galgani et al., 2000; Petović and
Marković, 2013; Strafella et al., 2015; Pasquini et al., 2016; Consoli
et al., 2018) but no long time data series are available.
Because of this, since 2011, monitoring of seafloor litter in this
basin has been included in the Solemon Project survey (Scarcella
et al., 2012, 2014; Grati et al., 2013) whose main goal is the stock
assessment of commercial benthic species (primarily Solea solea) in the
central and northern Adriatic Sea (FAO-GSA 17). Although the survey
25
Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35
was not specifically designed to assess seabed marine litter, it provides
a satisfactory picture of the occurrence of such pollutant in this basin.
The present study reports on composition, density and spatial dis-
tribution of the marine litter collected on the sea-floor during six survey
years (2011–2016), focussing on the different categories of seabed
marine litter and attempting to identify eventual relationships with the
relevant socioeconomic activities occurring in the area.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Study area
The Adriatic Sea is an elongated basin, located in the eastern
Mediterranean, between Italian peninsula and the Balkans coun-
tries, with its major axis in the NW-SE direction. The northern area
is very shallow, gently sloping, with an average depth of about 35 m,
while the central part is on average 140 m deep, with the two Pomo
Depressions reaching 260 m. The northern and central parts of the
basin are affected by a great number of rivers along the Italian coast,
among which Po river is the most relevant (Artegiani et al., 1997).
The West Adriatic Current (WAC), flowing toward SE along the
western coast, and the East Adriatic Current (EAC), flowing NE
along the eastern coast, together with the river discharge, and wind
stress are the main drivers affecting the Adriatic circulation. Two
main cyclonic gyres occur, one in the northern part and the other in
the South, while Bora wind (from NE) causing free sea surface to rise
close to the coast enhancing the WAC and the Sirocco wind (from
SE) leading the flood events in the shallow lagoons along the basin
coast are the major winds blowing over the Adriatic Sea (Marini
et al., 2008).
A strong annual thermal variation affects the northern and central
Adriatic Sea and it is more pronounced at the surface (e.g., 5–28 °C)
than at the bottom (e.g., 12–17 °C). The water column from the coast to
6–7 nm offshore is characterized by low temperature (5–6 °C) and
salinity (< 37‰) in winter, while the offshore waters are warmer
(10–12 °C) and ticker (> 38‰). A vertical thermohaline front parallel
to the coast, and extended throughout the water mass, divides the
coastal waters from the open sea, detaining the materials flowing from
rivers and other water sources within the coastal area. A stratification
characterizes the water column separating the warmer surficial waters
with lower salinity from the deeper, colder and more saline ones during
summer (Artegiani et al., 1997).
The area is subject to a heavy anthropic pressure due to intense
coastal urbanization, especially along the Italian side, tourism, dense
shipping traffic (commercial and passenger) as well as to different
maritime activities such as fishing, gas extraction and aquaculture,
mainly consisting of mussel culture along the Italian coast and fish
farming along the Croatian one (Coll et al., 2007; Ponti et al., 2007;
Fabi et al., 2009; Pranovi et al., 2016; Punzo et al., 2017).
The present study was carried out within the FAO Geographical Sub-
Area 17 (GSA 17: northern and central Adriatic) and covered an area
having a surface of 36,742 km2 and extending from the Italian coast to
the 12 nm limit of the Croatian national waters, and from 8 m to 100 m
depth (Fig. 1).
P. Strafella, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35

Fig. 1. Map of the northern and central Adriatic Sea (GSA 17) with the main surface currents and stations sampled in the six survey years.

2.2. Data collection
Six surveys were carried out in the framework of the Solemon
project during fall from 2011 to 2016, by the National Research Council
(CNR-IRBIM, Italy) in cooperation with the Italian National Institute for
Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA, Italy), the Institut za
Oceanografiju i Ribarstvo (IOF, Croatia), and the Fisheries Research
Institute of Slovenia (FRIS, Slovenia). The main goal of the Solemon
Project is the stock assessment of commercial benthic species, mainly
Solea solea, in the central and northern Adriatic Sea, however anthro-
pogenic waste data are also collected.
Litter samples were collected using a modified beam trawl commonly
used by the Italian fishermen to catch flat fish and other benthic species
named “rapido”. The gear is made up of an iron rectangular frame 3.59 m
wide and 0.25 m high, equipped with four skids and 46 iron teeth along the
lower leading edge. An inclined wooden board attached to the front of the
upper side acts as a spoiler, holding the gear in contact with the seabed. A
polyamide net bag, protected in its lower side by a reinforced rubber dia-
mond-mesh net, is tied to the frame. The codend is 2.70 m long and has
40 mm mesh size (stretched). The fixed mouth of the gear makes possible
to know exactly the area surveyed by the gear during each haul (Fig. 2).
A total of 67 stations were sampled each year distributed over the
area following a depth-stratified random design (strata: 0–30 m,
30–50 m, 50–100 m) based on the spatial distribution of the main target
species and the vessel towed two gears simultaneously carrying out one
haul at each station during daytime with an average speed of 5.5 knots.

Table 1
Numbers of stations per depth strata, area covered per year per depth stratum
and total area of each stratum.
Strata No. Swept area per stratum per each year Tot
stations (km2) stratum
area (km2)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

0–30 m 38 1.28 1.15 1.23 1.11 1.28 1.34 11,512

30–50 m 18 0.57 0.56 0.54 0.51 0.55 0.55 8410
50–100 m 11 0.41 0.35 0.33 0.30 0.36 0.36 22,466
Tot swept area per 2.25 2.06 2.10 1.92 2.19 2.25
year (km2)
Fig. 2. “Rapido” trawl net scheme.

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P. Strafella, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35

Table 2 The hauls usually lasted 30 min, even if sometimes the towing time
Minimum and maximum weight densities (kg/km2) found in the stations per was reduced to 5 min to avoid overloading of the nets. In such cases, the
years, average weight densities per station of the total litter found per each year haul was repeated and the catches were pooled together (Table 1). At each
and the average weight density per stations of the total litter collected over the haul, one “rapido” was randomly chosen and the litter items in its catch
years is also reported. se = standard error.
were collected, counted, weighted and classified following six major ca-
Year Min Max Average ± se tegories: plastic, metal, glass, rubber, wood, and other according to the
kg/km2 kg/km2 kg/km2 nature of the material (Katsanevakis and Katsarou, 2004). Plastic litter was
subsequently divided in 3 sub-categories based on its source: fishing nets
2011 0.00 2461.83 159.98 ± 54.49
2012 0.00 3802.23 162.50 ± 65.11 (FN), mussel culture debris (MCD), and other plastic (OP) (e.g., bottles,
2013 0.00 997.12 82.44 ± 21.90 plastic glasses, bags). The weight instead of the items number was used in
2014 0.15 2228.49 81.82 ± 34.26 this study based on the fact that certain litter categories (e.g., plastic and
2015 1.43 870.90 87.24 ± 18.23
glass) can break into small pieces, impeding the quantification of single
2016 0.76 395.11 41.99 ± 9.16
Average per station over the years ± se: 102.66 ± 41.91 kg/km2
items without overestimating abundances (Ramirez-Llodra et al., 2013;
Pham et al., 2014; Strafella et al., 2015; Pasquini et al., 2016).

Table 3 2.3. Data analysis

Regression analysis (r-log-linked Gamma GLM). The litter categories are re-
ported in the column, the yearly decreases in kg/km2 and the p-value ≤ 0.05 in The weight of each litter category recorded on board in each haul
the rows. was standardized to the square kilometre basing on the swept area.
Data collected were used to calculate the lowest and highest density
Regression analysis (α = 0.05)
values (kg/km2), the average density ± standard error (se) in each
Litter categories Yearly decreases (kg/km2) p-Value ≤ 0.05 year and over the years ( ± se; Table 2).
The average abundance of litter collected in the whole survey
Tot. litter −23.320 0.013
period was also calculated for each category in three depth ranges
MCD −0.800 –
FN −2.015 – (0–30 m, 30–50 m, 50–100 m; Fig. 5).
OP −2.558 – A regression analysis (r-log-linked Gamma GLM) was performed to
Metal −8.491 – investigate eventual trends of litter abundance over time (Table 3).
Rubber 0.617 – To understand the possible origins of each litter category, four dif-
Glass −0.645 –
Wood −0.086 –
ferent independent variables were considered for each station: distance
Other −9.326 0.012 to the coast (DC), distance to the main marine traffic (DT), fishing ac-
tivity (FA), and presence of mussel farms (MC). The trawl tracks within
3 km radius from each station were summed up to calculate FA, while
the area of mussel farms within 5 km radius from each station was

Fig. 3. Map of the GSA 17 with the independent variables mussel culture, marine traffic and fishing activity.

27
P. Strafella, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35

Table 4
Kendall's correlation coefficient (tau) results. The dependent variables are reported in the column, the independent variables in the rows. DC, distance to the coast;
DT, distance to the main marine traffic; FA, fishing activity; MC, mussel farm; MCD, mussel culture debris; FN, fishing net; OP, other plastic.
Values interpretation: exactly +1, perfect downhill (positive) linear relationship; +0.70, strong downhill (positive) linear relationship; +0.40, moderate downhill
(positive) relationship; +0.10, weak downhill (positive) linear relationship; 0, no linear relationship; −0.10, weak uphill (negative) linear relationship; −0.40,
moderate uphill (negative) relationship; −0.70, strong uphill (negative) linear relationship; exactly −1, perfect uphill (negative) linear relationship.
Kendell's tau (τ) correlation coefficient α = 0.05 p-value ≤ 0.05

DC DT FA MC

Tau Relationship Tau Relationship Tau Relationship Tau Relationship

MCD −0.30 Moderate 0.25 Moderate −0.04 – 0.17 Weak

FN −0.16 Weak 0.11 Weak −0.07 – 0.12 Weak
OP −0.12 Weak 0.05 – −0.04 – 0.01 –
Metal −0.05 – −0.06 – −0.11 Weak 0.03 –
Rubber −0.07 – 0.05 – 0.01 – 0.06 –
Glass 0.01 – −0.09 – −0.12 Weak 0.00 –
Wood −0.06 – 0.03 – 0.06 – 0.00 –
Other −0.10 Weak −0.01 – −0.06 – 0.03 –

considered to estimate MC (Fig. 3).
Kendall's rank correlation coefficient (tau) was used to measure the
strength of dependence between independent and dependent (litter
amount) variables (McPherson, 1990) and to assess significant corre-
lations (p-value < 0.05; Table 4).
According to the Kendall's tau results, in the subsequent analysis
abundance surfaces and hot-spots were only computed for those cate-
gories showing significant relationships with the independent variables.
Spatial analysis and visualizations as well as the measurement, for
each station, of all the above mentioned independent variables DC
(km), DT (km), FA (km), and MC (km2) were performed in ArcGIS 10.3
(ESRI, 2018). In particular, the Kernel density (Silverman, 1986) and
Optimized Hot Spot Analysis tools (Getis and Ord, 1992) were respec-
tively run to: 1) predict the occurrence of each litter category working
with the litter abundance, a cell size of 0.01° and a search radius of 1°
(due to the dispersion of the data); and 2) evaluate potential clusters in
the distribution of each category over the years, and identify statisti-
cally significant hot spots.
3. Results
The mean density of total litter collected over six sampling years
throughout the surveyed area amounted to 102.66 ± 41.91 kg/km2
(Table 2), while in the different years it ranged from 41.99 ± 9.16 kg/
km2 in 2016 to 162.50 ± 65.11 kg/km2 in 2012. The lowest density
(0.00 kg/km2) was recorded in 2011, 2012, and 2013, while the highest
one was registered in 2012 (3802.23 kg/km2).
The regression analysis showed a significant decrease over the years

Fig. 4. Spatial distribution and weight of the total litter collected on the sea bottom in the six survey years.

28
P. Strafella, et al.
only for the “total litter” and the “other” category (Table 3).
The highest concentration of total litter was found in stations close
to the coast within 30 m depth with a mean weight of
142.90 ± 27.20 kg/km2, while the lowest value was recorded between
30 and 50 m depth (41.12 ± 9.62 kg/km2). Metal was the most
abundant category within 30 m depth (34.51 ± 15.39 kg/km2) fol-
lowed, in the order, by other (30.04 ± 10.84 kg/km2), OP
(28.54 ± 7.95 kg/km2), FN (22.58 ± 7.91 kg/km2) and MCD
(11.57 ± 1.93 kg/km2; Figs. 4 and 5).
Fig. 5. Average density of the different litter categories per stratum.
Plastic was dominant accounting for 43% of the total litter collected
during the sampling period, followed by metal and other litter re-
presenting, respectively, 24% and 20%. Glass, wood and rubber made
up very small percentages (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6. Percentage composition of the marine litter recorded on the seabed during the six survey years. The three sub-categories of plastic litter are reported in detail.
Lost fishing nets and mussel culture debris accounted for 50% of the
overall plastic litter (32% and 18% respectively). The sub-category
“other plastic” (50% of the total plastic) comprised a wide range of
objects such as garbage bags, shopping bags, cups, bottles, food
packaging, dishes, other kitchen stuffs and industrial packaging.
Metal and glass litter mainly corresponded to aluminium cans, different
29
Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35
carpentry tools, jars, glass beverage and bottles; rubber was made up of car
tires, rubber strings and parts of winches, while wood mostly included
wooden parts of fish packaging and few parts of building materials. The
category “other” consisted of sundry material such as pieces of clothes
(wool, cotton), cotton wastes, shoes, boots, gloves, ceramic items, etc.
Kendall's tau coefficient highlighted that MCD had a moderate in-
verse correlation with DC and a direct correlation with DT and with MC
(Table 4). A similar situation was also obtained for FN although with
weak relationships in all cases. OP and “other” resulted weakly and
negatively correlated with DC, while metal and glass had a weak ne-
gative relationship with FA. Rubber and wood had no significant cor-
relation at all.
MCD Kernel density maps showed a well-defined and constant spatial
persistence of this debris that, over the years, appeared concentrated along
the north-western part of the Adriatic Sea, between Venice and Ancona,
extending southwards in 2013, 2014 and 2015. The main occurrence was
localized in the coastal area between Pesaro and Venice where there are
numerous mussel farms, with a peak in 2012 (Fig. 7).
P. Strafella, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35

Fig. 7. The MCD kernel density prediction maps per each survey year.

Also FN items were constantly found in the north-western sector of
the basin up to the 50 m bathymetric line for the first 3 years, with the
highest concentration near the Po river mouth in 2012 and 2013 (re-
spectively 90% and 70% density isopleths; Fig. 8). Instead, the spatial
distribution of this debris appeared more variable in the subsequent
years with no persistence in 2014, an extension up to the central
Adriatic coast in 2015, and a tendency to come back to the initial si-
tuation in the last sampling year.
off the Croatian coast, with the highest abundance located between
Venice and Trieste (Fig. 9). Two additional smaller areas occurred at
South along the Italian coast. In the two subsequent years only a few
small residual areas could be evidenced, while an increase occurred
again in 2014 with a persistence area similar to that identified in 2011
and the highest occurrence of the overall sampling period between
Pesaro and Ravenna cities. In 2015, this persistence further extended
southward and two areas of higher occurrence were evidenced even

Fig. 8. The FN kernel density prediction maps per each survey year.

Kernel persistence maps of OP revealed an even more variable si- though with lower values in respect to the previous peaks. Finally, a
tuation over the years. In 2011, a wide area of occurrence was identi- decrease occurred in 2016 leading to the same situation observed
fied in the northern part of the basin from the Italian coast up to 12 nm in 2013.

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P. Strafella, et al. Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35

Fig. 9. The OP kernel density prediction maps per each survey year.

Metal occurrence was usually located in the north-western part of
the basin, indicating a limited area of high accumulation from the coast
between Chioggia and Pesaro cities up to around 30 nm offshore and
the highest occurrence in 2012 (Fig. 15). An exception occurred in
2015, when a persistence of this debris was found in the north-central
Adriatic Sea from the external limit of the Croatian national waters to
offshore.
Koper cities (Fig. S10).
Another smaller area was identified at South, along the Italian coast
while, a decrease occurred until 2012, when no persistence could be
evidenced. Glass occurrence was again identified in 2014, when it was
confined in the north-central part of the basin, from the external limit of
the Croatian national waters to offshore. It further spread northward in
2015 reaching the Italian and Slovenian coasts, where the highest oc-

Fig. 15. Mussel culture debris, fishing nets, other plastic and metal hotspot maps of the six survey years.

In 2011, glass showed a persistence area in the northerner part of currence was highlighted, to recede again in the subsequent year when
the basin extending from the coast to offshore the Istria peninsula and it appeared confined to the northerner area.
reaching the highest values in the coastal zone between Trieste and The occurrence of rubber debris was usually located along the

31
P. Strafella, et al.
western side of the area from the northerner limit of the Adriatic Sea to
Ancona city and from the coast to offshore (Fig. S11). A further per-
sistence zone was identified at South, along the Italian coast, but its
position varied over the years. The only exceptions were observed in
2011, when no persistence of rubber was found, and in 2016, when
only the southernmost persistence area occurred being characterized by
the highest values recorded in the overall sampling period.
Wood persistence was evidenced only in four sampling years (2011,
2012, 2014, and 2015) in a zone located on the western side from Ancona
city to the North and from the coast up to 50 m depth (Fig. S12). The
extension of such area varied over the years, reaching sometimes the
northerner border of the Adriatic Sea and/or the external limit of the
national Croatian waters. The highest values were mostly found in the
coastal area between Pesaro and Rimini cities with a peak in 2015.
Finally, the occurrence of “other” litter seems to be mostly located in
the north western sampling area between Chioggia and Pesaro cities and
up to basin midline even if 80%–90% density isopleths indicate wide areas
of high accumulation close to the Giulianova city coast in 2011 and 2012.
No “other” occurrence was recorded in 2015 and 2016 (Fig. S13).
MCD, FN, OP and metal were the only litter categories for which the
distributions clustered over the years and statistically significant hot
spots were identified (Fig. S14).
MCD hot spots were located in three areas, two of them close to the
Italian coast, one in the southern part of the basin and the other one in
the northern-central area, nearby Rimini city; the third hot spot was
located in the northern part of the basin, in front of the Po river mouth
and around 20 nm from the Italian coast.
Two FN hot spots were identified, both located close to the Italian
coast, the bigger one around the Po river mouth and the other, smaller, in
the coastal area between Pesaro and Rimini cities. Two coastal hot spot
were also obtained for OP, one between Rimini and Pesaro cities and the
other in the gulf of Trieste, while metal showed only one hot spot located
close to the Italian coast between Ravenna and Rimini cities.
4. Discussions and conclusions
Marine litter has become an extremely important threat due to its
negative impacts from the in environmental, economic, social and human
health point of view. In spite of this, no coordinated regional or national
monitoring programs have been developed up to date to identify sources
and assess spatial and temporal patterns of the different typologies of
marine litter in the EU seas even though ten years have passed since the
EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) entered in force. The
postponing of setting in place large scale standardized monitoring pro-
grams, as well as specific policies addressing this growing challenge could
imply significant consequences for the environment and the large society.
As a matter of fact, scarce information on “long time series” data of
seabed litter are available to understand clearly the origins of this pol-
lutant, especially for the Italian Sea. In this context, monitoring of marine
litter of the seabed assumes a great relevance taking into account that
around 70% of marine litter reaches the sea floor (OSPAR, 2013).
The present study reports the data on marine litter collected on the
seafloor of the central and northern Adriatic Sea over a six-year
focussing on the different litter categories and providing useful in-
formation on temporal and spatial patterns of this pollutant for future
comparisons and it may be useful, for instance, in the framework of the
MSFD implementation.
The comparison of results reported in the available literature is
rather complicated due to the different methodologies used in the data
collection and classification of marine litter.
Even if the average density, considering total litter and the “other”
litter category collected, decreased over the years, all the other categories
considered in the present study showed no significant differences or trends
in the average density in the whole surveyed area. Nevertheless, it has
been possible to draw up that the average amount of litter in the present
study was much higher than those collected in few scientific bottom otter
32
Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35
trawl surveys in the Barents Sea in the north of Norway and Russia
(Grøsvik et al., 2018), North Atlantic coast of Spain (Lopez-Lopez et al.,
2017), in the Gulf of Alicante (Spain) (García-Rivera et al., 2017), in the
Moroccan waters (Loulad et al., 2017), in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Licitra et al.,
2012) and in the eastern Ionian Sea (Koutsodendris et al., 2008). However,
the average litter density falls in the weight range reported by Ramirez-
Llodra et al. (2013) in the Western Mediterranean Sea (60 ± 40 to
400 ± 180 kg/km2) and are close to those reported by Buhl-Mortensen
and Buhl-Mortensen (2017, 2018) (182 kg/km2 and 143 kg/km2 respec-
tively) in the Norwegian Sea and the southern Barents Sea. It is worthy to
point out that the sampling gear used in the present study (rapido) may
have a higher performance than the bottom trawl nets to collect marine
debris, being specially designed to capture demersal resources living very
close to the seafloor.
The significant decrease on time of the average abundance of total
litter was likely due to a reduction of most of the nine litter categories
(MCD, FN, OP, wood, metal, glass, other) considered, even though a sig-
nificant decreasing trend was only observed for the “other” litter category.
Similarly to what reported in other European waters (Galgani et al.,
1995, 2000; Katsanevakis and Katsarou, 2004; Koutsodendris et al.,
2008; Eryaşar et al., 2014) the greatest amount of litter was found close
to the Italian coast in respect to offshore according to the high urba-
nization and the several human activities which take place in the
coastal areas as well as to the great river input entering into the western
side of the central and norther Adriatic Sea.
Moreover, in agreement with the previous studies carried out in the
same area (Strafella et al., 2015; Pasquini et al., 2016), plastic was
confirmed as the main litter category.
It is already well known that plastic is extremely dangerous for
marine life and human health, being a source of toxic chemicals such as
PBCs or dioxins (Engler, 2012; Gallo et al., 2018), furthermore plastics
may degrade becoming microplastic which is considered a multiple
stressor in aquatic habitats and may enter in the human food through
their ingestion by fish or other sea food and, in addition, it may result in
the risk of chemicals bioaccumulation and biomagnification (Gago
et al., 2016; Steer et al., 2017; Gomiero et al., 2018; Kokalj et al., 2018;
Luttenberger, 2018; Nelms et al., 2018; Pellini et al., 2018; Schmidt
et al., 2018). Likewise the previous litter surveys conducted in other
areas around the world (June and West, 1990; Hess et al., 1999;
Katsanevakis and Katsarou, 2004; Guven et al., 2013; Ramirez-Llodra
et al., 2013; Consoli et al., 2018), also in this case fishing nets, mainly
represented by long-lines and set-nets, and aquaculture debris ac-
counted for half of the total plastic litter as a result of the intense fishing
activity and the high presence of mussel farm along the Italian coast.
The northern and central Adriatic Sea is heavily affected by several
anthropogenic activities such as professional and recreational fishing
(Coll et al., 2007; Pranovi et al., 2016), aquaculture (Ponti et al., 2007;
Fabi et al., 2009), recreational maritime traffic and ferries traffic,
commercial shipping, gas extraction by platforms (Manoukian et al.,
2010; Scarcella et al., 2011; Punzo et al., 2017), high population den-
sity along the coast due to the seasonal tourism; it is also deeply af-
fected by several river inflow, especially along the Italian coast (Penna
et al., 2004; Cozzi and Giani, 2011; Liubartseva et al., 2016).
Indeed, the largest amount of mussel culture debris was found close
to the western coast in correspondence with the greatest concentration
of mussel farms and its distribution was constant over the six years of
monitoring. It mainly consisted of the tubular nets used to grow mussels
which might have been accidentally lost/abandoned at sea during the
mussel processing (Melli et al., 2017).
The fishing nets were also found mainly close to the coast within
3 nm and were mainly set-nets used by small scale fishermen that
usually carry out their activity in that area where trawling is forbidden
in order to avoid the destruction of their gears (Strafella et al., 2015).
Considering that there are around 200 mussel farms along the
Adriatic Italian coast with an annual production of some 43,500 tons in
2016 (www.politiheagricole.it) and in the last decades the production
P. Strafella, et al.
of mussels has increased drastically in the region (ADRIPLAN, 2014),
and also that the small scale fisheries accounted for around 55% of the
overall fishing fleets operating in the area in 2013 (Mannini and
Sabatella, 2015), up to now a lot of worldwide studies were focused to
address the aquaculture and fishing activity impact on the chemical,
microbial or alien species introduction point of view (Mirto et al., 2000;
Rosa et al., 2001; Di Tullio et al., 2018; Froján et al., 2018; Huang et al.,
2018; Maar et al., 2018), furthermore a great number of scientific paper
were focused on the economic, ecosystem structure, stock assessment,
benthic habitat, bycatch, marine species entanglement and ghost
fishing gears perspective (Thrush et al., 1998; Steinback, 1999;
Dinmore et al., 2003; Casale et al., 2004; Shahidul Islam et al., 2004;
Coll et al., 2007; Sullivan et al., 2019). Only in the recent years some
studies are beginning to take in account the plastic litter impact derived
from the mussel farm activities and fishing activities in the European
waters (e.g. Strafella et al., 2015; Munari et al., 2016; Pasquini et al.,
2016; Buhl-Mortensen and Buhl-Mortensen, 2017, 2018; Grøsvik et al.,
2018; Vlachogianni et al., 2018).
Other plastic was made up of food packaging, plastic bags, bottles
and dishes or kitchen stuffs ant it was mainly found close to the coast.
Its spatial persistence varied among the years, but its land origin ap-
peared mainly linked to the municipal solid waste (Nash, 1992; Barnes
and Milner, 2005; Engler, 2012; Galgani et al., 2014a, 2014b) as de-
monstrated by the hot spot analysis which evidenced a constant oc-
currence of this category mostly close to large coastal cities char-
acterized by high population density and/or high tourism levels.
The river inflow could have also played a somehow role in the OP
abundance and spatial distribution (Galgani et al., 2014a, 2014b; Pasquini
et al., 2016; Guerranti et al., 2017), indeed the highest occurrence of this
category in 2014 corresponded to the highest Po river flow rate recorded
in the overall sampling period (Average Po' river flow rate in m3/s: 2011,
1373.9; 2012, 1144.2; 2013, 1819.3; 2014, 2288.3; 2015, 1305.2; 2016,
1169.9; http://www.smr.arpa.emr.it/dext3r/). It was estimated that the
total annual input of plastic in the Adriatic Sea amounted to
0.25–1.00 million metric ton in 2010 (Jambeck et al., 2015).
Metal and glass usually sink rapidly and thus do not travel long
distances, but their spatial distribution appeared to be affected by
bottom trawl fishing activity. The hypothesis, following Lopez-Lopez
et al. (2017), is that the fishermen drop these items, especially metal
objects, far away from the fishing grounds where they initially de-
posited in order to reduce net damages. These two categories also likely
originated from marine-based sources including ferries, merchant ves-
sels and recreational boats according to several authors (e.g. Whiting,
1998; Stefatos et al., 1999; Koutsodendris et al., 2008; Ramirez-Llodra
et al., 2013). Moreover, a lot of metal tools used in carpentry were
found in the area with the highest presence of gas platforms and they
were likely related to the maintenance activities of these structures.
Spatial distribution and source of the remaining litter categories
considered in this study are hard to explain due to the scarce in-
formation on the possible inputs and to the fact that they include a wide
range of items (Strafella et al., 2015; Pasquini et al., 2016), some of
which may be transported over long distances by wind and currents
before sinking (Pham et al., 2014).
The distribution of other litter appeared very variable over the years,
but it mainly occurred close to the coast. This category was mostly re-
presented by tissues (mainly clothes) and ceramic items likely deriving
from land, therefore high coastal urbanization and tourism seem to be the
main sources as suggested by Derraik (2002) and Galgani et al. (2015).
Rubber and wood did not show any relationship with the considered
independent variables and their spatial persistence was inconsistent over
the years, due to their sporadic occurrence which did not also allow to
clearly identify the origins of all the found items. Wooden parts of fish-
packaging likely indicated a fishery-based source, moreover it can be as-
sumed that the rubber tyres may be related to the fishing and to the crew/
supply vessels (serving the gas platform activities) which use them as fen-
ders (Tudor et al., 2002; Koutsodendris et al., 2008; Pasquini et al., 2016).
33
Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 (2019) 24–35
In the overall, distance to the coast was the variable with higher
explanatory power of statistical and spatial analyses, being correlated
to the three plastic sub-categories and “other”.
These results confirm that the spatial distribution of seabed litter is
mostly affected by the coastal activities, even if marine litter occurrence
is influenced by several factors acting synergistically (e.g. litter abun-
dance and source, shape, composition, weight and persistence in the
water column along with winds, waves, water circulation and bottom
topography) (Bauer et al., 2008; Mifsud et al., 2013). In addition, once
the debris sink to the seabed, it can be also transported elsewhere either
through anthropogenic activities (e.g., trawling) or through natural
processes (bottom currents), especially for materials with very long
longevity and low specific density (Mifsud et al., 2013). Hence, all the
independent variables taken in to account cannot be considered “per
se” drivers of the different marine litter categories distribution, being
the litter distribution likely the result of a mixed contribution of these
variables (Lopez-Lopez et al., 2017).
The results of this study provide useful information to deeply under-
stand the state of seabed litter in the central and northern Adriatic Sea,
providing also an illustrative picture of the comparative importance of
each factor or source, contributing to support and guide the marine litter
management and its systematic monitoring and these data could be used
to improve administrations management and to increase the effectiveness
of national and international regulations about this issue.
The information available through this work can also help to pro-
mote actions and projects aimed to actively decrease marine litter by
involving the different users of the marine space (e.g. fishermen in
DeFishGear Project, Vlachogianni et al., 2017) at the same time, to lead
the government to modify some laws to favour this process (e.g. to
prevent fishermen from paying fees to land the marine debris they catch
during the fishing activities), increasing also the awareness of the wide
society with regard to this issue.
The effectiveness of these actions implies sharing scientific knowl-
edge and accurate, consistent and comparable data that will basically
facilitate the implementation of coordinated plans to effectively reduce
the amount of marine litter.
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.12.054.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the staffs of the different research institutes who
have contributed to data collection and the crew of the oceanographic
vessel G. Dallaporta. They would also like to thank the FAO-ADRIAMED
regional project for the financial support.
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