Impact of multiple beach activities on litter and microplastic composition, distribution, and characterization along the southeast coast of India

Fishing litter dominates the litter along the beaches of Palk Bay, Southeastern of India

“…It is also less than the global average (∼1 item/m 2 ) [50]. The mean density is of the same order of magnitude as densities reported along the southeast coast of India [51], Morocco [52], Northern Mediterranean countries [48], Italy [53], North Atlantic Islands [43] and Caspian Sea [54]. In this comparison, it is important to take into account the beach typology studied.…”

“…Particularly, 21.85% of the overall litter collected is made of items connected to shing, as reported in our study. This value exceeds the 5% estimated for the Mediterranean [64], the 11-19.4% reported by [47] for the North western Adriatic beaches, 21% in India [17] [51], 48% in the beaches of Thailand [70], 46% in the Great Paci c [71] and 46% along the coast of Brazil [72]. Fishing activities, such as commercial shing and marine aquaculture (51.3%), were discussed by [73] as the main sources of marine litter in Korea.…”

“…Taking into consideration the entire study area (6000 m 2 ), the Palk Bay score achieves an overall CCI value of 11 which allows to be classi ed this region as "dirty". Similarly, [30] and [51] used the same index in Indian beaches and determined that most beaches were classi ed as "clean" to "dirty". Similar ndings have been reported for sandy beaches in Bangladesh [56] and in Philippines [57] where beaches were listed as "moderately clean", "dirty," and "extremely dirty.…”

“…The high density reported in this study may be explained by the lack of cleaning of sites and the proximity of rivers, which facilitates the accumulation of marine litter. [51] reported that shing villages result in greater accumulation of litter. .…”

“…Also, [16] identi ed plastic items related to shing as one of the major sources of litter along the beaches of northeast India. Similarly, [51] determined that litter from shing is the second most prevalent source along India's southeast coast. Particularly, 21.85% of the overall litter collected is made of items connected to shing, as reported in our study.…”