A year of monitoring coastal ecosystems of Benguerra Island has provided the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) with extensive data on the marine debris found. As part of the Ocean Observatory’s Research Theme 4: Marine Debris Monitoring, during 42 collections a total of 125 hours were spent removing marine debris, yielding more than 1500 kgs. The five designated areas cover various hectares of beach, mudflats, seagrass and mangrove habitat. These habitats are crucially connected to the ocean, whether it is the mangrove forests providing shelter for juvenile fish species and protecting the villages from storms, of the seagrass meadows providing excellent living conditions for numerous crustacean and fish species. These ecosystems are also efficient carbon sequestering habitats. In 2023, the Memorandum of Understanding between BCSS and Universal Plastic was signed. UP is aiming to close the cycle on plastic pollution by leveraging AI and blockchain technology in order to track the origins of plastic debris, while providing a powerful, global database. The BCSS team enters all collected plastic marine debris to the Universal Plastic database using their application. The app can be used for capturing plastic waste data, AI measurements and classification, initiating waste collections or joining already scheduled ones. The report includes more information on our collaboration with Universal Plastic, our methodology, visualisations of the data and much more.
Download the 2023 Annual Marine Debris Report BCSS
