Marine litter is one of the fastest growing global marine environmental problems. Although there is no data how marine litter impacts on seabirds in Croatia, it is expected that birds will be exposed to this problem and future research is needed.
All around the world, thousands of birds and their habitats are endangered. For that reason, it is important to preserve bird populations. For this purpose, in Sunce, since September 2018 we have been implementing a project LIFE Artina – „Seabird Conservation Network in the Adriatic“.
With the LIFE Artina project, among other things, we want to understand and assess the main negative impacts on seabird populations on land and at sea, and define activities that will mitigate them. For this reason, during the duration of the five-year project, in the area of the Nature Park Lastovo Islands, we are carrying out clean-up actions and marine litter monitoring on selected beaches and transects on the surface of the sea.
In the period from 2019 to 2021, a total of four monitorings of marine litter were conducted on the beaches Sito, Kremena, and Saplun, while monitoring of marine litter on the sea surface was conducted from southeast to southwest, in the direction perpendicular to the coast of Lastovo island.
28/07/2021 – available in Croatian only.
During marine litter monitoring, the type of litter, its origin and dimensions were recorded, while the total weight was additionally monitored for litter found on beaches. You can read more about the collected and processed data in the summary of the final report available for download on Life Artina website.
Follow Sunce’s announcements because soon we will publish information about this year’s clean-up action.