2013 Volume 24 Issue 5 Pages 88-96
The amount of accumulated plastic debris and wrack quantities of fishery floats were measured on beaches in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The weight of the accumulated plastic debris totaled 387kg, out of which litter from the marine products industry equaled a 36 weight percentage (13.9kg/hm). A total of 35,512 floats were recorded during monthly monitoring from 2005 to 2012. The quantity of EPS floats was 8.9kg/(hm･y) [11.8pcs/(hm･y)] and the quantities of big and small floats made of materials other than EPS (long axis divided by 15cm) were 9.5kg/(hm･y) [7.2pcs/(hm･y) and 4.4kg/(hm･y)[107.8pcs/(hm･y)] respectively. The total was 22.8kg/(hm･y), which is far heavier than the total weight of PET bottles less than 1L in volume (4.0kg/(hm･y)). These findings indicate that the marine products industry in East Asia is responsible for discharging large quantities of artificial litter into the sea. In order to reduce marine fishery litter, it is therefore necessary for individual measures to be taken up in Asian countries. The effectiveness of such measures can be readily measured on the basis of this study.
