Scisciolo, T. de

Student Report

This research examined the current situation of pollution on the shores of Aruba, with a particular emphasis on plastic debris. It focused on the systematic comparison of litter concentration between the north coast and the south coast. Beach litter assessments were performed in order to address the following questions: What is the overall pollution level of Aruba’s shoreline? Is plastic the most abundant material found? If so is there a significant difference between plastic debris and other materials collected? Is there a significant difference in macro- and meso debris abundancy between the north coast (foreign origin) and the south coast (local origin)? Is there a difference in the trash abundancy found during the 2nd round of assessments from the amount of trash found in the 1st round of assessments? Is there a difference in trash abundancy in respect to distance from the waterfront? The main focus on this research is placed on macro-debris and meso-debris. A nice effect of this research has been that in the process of collecting data, all beaches studied were cleaned.

A large-scale study of beach debris on Aruba has shown just how much marine debris pollution there is on the island’s beaches. The study also locates the different sources of this debris, emphasizing the need for both local and global action. 

This news article was published in BioNews 24.

BioNews is produced by the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

Abstract
Accumulation of marine (plastic) debris from local land-based and distal marine-based sources along coastlines is a pressing modern issue. Hitherto, assessing the relative contribution of pollution sources through beach sur- veys is methodologically challenging. We surveyed ten beaches along the leeward and windward coastlines of Aruba (southern Caribbean) to determine differences in macro- and meso-debris densities. Differences were quantified using three metrics: 1) the gradient in macro-debris density away from the waterfront; 2) the propor- tion of plastic within macro-debris; 3) the meso-:macro-debris ratio. Overall 42,585 macro-debris items and 884 meso-debris items were collected. The density of near-shore macro-debris, proportion of plastic debris herein, and meso-:macro-debris ratio were highest on the windward coastline. These results suggest that southern Ca- ribbean windward coastlines are mainly exposed to debris originating from distal marine-based sources, and lee- ward coastlines to local land-based sources. Our metrics clearly reflect these differences, providing novel means to survey debris source origin.