Peer Reviewed Journal Articles (Inter.) (FT)

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Assessment of fishing-related plastic debris along the beaches in Kerala Coast, India
(Elsevier, 2020) Daniel, Damaris Benny; Thomas, Saly N; Thomson, K.T
An assessment of quantity, composition and seasonal variation of fishing-related plastic debris was conducted in six beaches along the Kerala coast of India during 2017–2018. Plastic items were the most dominant type of waste constituting 73.8% by number and 59.9% by weight. In the total debris recorded, 5540 pieces (36%) weighing 198.4 kg (39.8%) were fishing related trash. On an average 14.4 ± 12 fishing related items/100m2, corresponding to mean weight of 0.55 ± 0.7 kg/100m2 was recorded from these beaches. Results indicated that the fishing-related plastic items were concentrated four times more in the beaches with higher fishing intensity, as compared to the other beaches. Also, the concentration of fishing-related plastic was recorded higher in the post-monsoon season compared to the lowest during monsoon, which was significant with p-value<0.05. The results emphasize the role of fishing activities in the generation of marine litter.