Potential Plastic Accumulation Zones in the Indian Coastal Seas

Sivadas, Sanitha K.; Ramu, Karri; Mishra, Pravakar; Mv, Ramana Murthy

doi:10.3389/fmars.2021.768001

Cited by 12 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Thus, surveying this coast for plasto-tarballs and plasto-tar crusts could be useful to examine whether plastitar occurs in the northern and southern hemispheres with similar frequencies. Plastic and tar have repeatedly been reported washed up on the western coastline of India (Nair et al, 1972;Dwivedi et al, 1975;Quasim, 1975;Dhargalkar et al, 1977;Unnithan et al, 1981;Kaladharan et al, 2004;Rekadwad and Khobragade, 2015;Suneel et al, 2016;Shinde et al, 2017;Sivadas et al, 2021;Mishra et al, 2023;TAM Database, 2023) along which large oil amounts are transported (Gupta et al, 1993;EIA, 2017;Rodrigue, 2020). Here, intense tar strandings are associated with the monsoon season during which strong onshore winds prevail (Nair et al, 1972;Dhargalkar et al, 1977;Unnithan et al, 1981;Kaladharan et al, 2004;Shinde et al, 2017).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastitar records in marine coastal environments worldwide from 1973 to 2023

Ellrich,

Ehlers,

Furukuma

2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Plastics embedded in tar residues encrusting rocky coastlines were discovered on the Canary Islands (NE Atlantic Ocean) and termed “plastitar” in 2022. As plastic and tar pollution is widespread in marine pelagic and benthic habitats, it was predicted that this novel plastic form could occur on other coasts as well. To test this prediction, we reviewed the literature on plastic embedded in tar and examined rocky coastlines in our regions for plastitar. We found eight studies which reported plastic embedded in tar under several descriptions and terms (including “tar-bonded beach-conglomerate tarcrete”, “plasto-tar crust”, “plasto-tarball” and “plastitar”) in India (Arabian Sea), Bermuda (Saragossa Sea), the Bahamas (NW Atlantic Ocean), the United Arabic Emirates (Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman), Malta (central Mediterranean Sea), Croatia (Adriatic Sea), Italy (Adriatic and Ligurian Sea), Cabrera island, Menorca island and Sardinia island (western Mediterranean Sea) and Indonesia (Java Sea) from 1973 to 2023. We also detected plastitar during our field surveys in Japan (Sea of Japan) and Mallorca island (western Mediterranean Sea) in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), we verified the contained plastics as polyethylene (PE). Pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (PY-GC/MS) indicated that the tar residues derived from crude oil. Furthermore, plotting all these plastitar records in a global map revealed that almost all plastitar findings were made along the major oil transportation routes across the northern hemisphere suggesting that plastitar resulted from tanker-released crude oils. Overall, our study shows, for the first time, that plastitar has been a widespread and long overlooked plastic form in coastal systems worldwide.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastitar records in marine coastal environments worldwide from 1973 to 2023

Ellrich,

Ehlers,

Furukuma

2023

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Mangroves cover about 80,980 km 2 of the Indian Ocean. The South Asian coastline includes the Sundarabans, the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world, making for overall 4795 km 2 of mangrove forests on the South Asian coastline along the Indian Ocean [166]. While mangroves have been seen as sinks of anthropogenic debris in general and of MPs in particular, Okuku et al have shown in Kenya that the landward zone of mangroves often entangles land-derived debris, which often includes larger pieces of plastic, while the seaward zone traps ocean-going litter.…”

Section: Microplastics In Mangroves and Coral Reefs Along The Indian ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coral reefs cover about 200000 km 2 of the Indian Ocean. Along the Indian subcontinent, the Gulf of Mannar, the Gulf of Kachch, the Andaman, Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands constitute large reef ecosystems [166]. In addition, Mayotte, the Chagos archipelago, Reunion, Mauritius, the Seychelles, all possess reefs.…”

Section: Microplastics In Mangroves and Coral Reefs Along The Indian ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The authors found that the shoreward side of coral islands presented higher concentrations of microplastic, where proximity to human population densities on the mainland as well as the waste handling in the nearby areas on the mainland influenced the abundance of MPs on the islands [137]. In general, it has been noted that the Gulf of Mannar has become a potential accumulation zone for MPs along the Indian coast as have the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Khambhat in Gujarat [166]. At the level of living organism, MPs were also found at a concentration of 0.056 and 1.113 MP/g dwt in the tube structure of the reef-building polychaete Gunnarea gaimardi (Quatrefages 1848), collected along the Southeast coast of South Africa [172] [173].…”

Section: Microplastics In Mangroves and Coral Reefs Along The Indian ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microplastic in the Marine Environment of the Indian Ocean

Thiemann¹

2023

JEP

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Microplastic has been found in all major waterbodies in the world. Many examples of ingestion of microplastic by marine organisms have been reported. This presence of microplastic in marine organisms gives it the possibility to penetrate the human food chain by increasing the chance of microplastic in seafood targeted for human consumption. Although it is known that parts of the Indian Ocean suffer from significant plastic pollution, much of the systematic research on the microplastic abundance in different regions of the Indian Ocean stems only from the last five years. This manuscript reviews the available literature of 2015-2022 on the presence of microplastics in commercially important fish species in the Indian Ocean. The literature data on microplastic content on beaches, in subtidal sediment, in the sediment from the ocean floor, and in surface water of different regions of the Indian Ocean is reviewed, also.

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“…Recent studies indicate that PPE pollution caused by the COVID-19 epidemic in the coastal region is receiving more attention globally ( Hatami et al, 2022 ; De-la-Torre et al, 2022 ; Mghili et al, 2022 ; Ribeiro et al, 2022 ; Akhbarizadeh et al, 2021 ). Current research about marine pollution and a significant source of marine litter in India has been published ( Karthikeyan et al, 2022 ; Karthikeyan et al, 2021a , Karthikeyan et al, 2021b ; Kaladharan et al, 2017 ; Arun Kumar et al, 2016 ; Ganesapandian et al, 2011 ), as well as studies about plastics ( Sivadas et al, 2021 ), microplastics ( Karthikeyan et al, 2022 ; Sathish et al, 2019 ; Jeyasanta et al, 2020 ; Vidyasakar et al, 2020 ), PPE mask ( Gunasekaran et al, 2022 ; Kannan et al, 2023 ) entering the marine environment. This study aims to (1) identify PPE mask density, spatial distribution, and abundance and (2) recognize PPE mask from chemical characterization using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy.…”

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confidence: 99%