New guidelines for a common approach to tackle marine litter
The JRC, as co-chair of the Technical Group on Marine Litter, has just released a new edition of the Guidance on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas, first published in 2013.
The publication provides recommendations on how to sample, analyse and record marine litter with the aim to make the data comparable and usable across countries.
It gives advice on how to monitor litter objects and particles of different sizes on the coastline, seafloor, floating on the surface, and ingested by animals.
It also recommends how to assess the presence of organisms wrapped or trapped in marine litter such as abandoned fishing gear.