Seba B. Sheavly
David J. Rugg
Eric S. Erdmann
Christine Ribic
2012
<p><span>We assessed amounts, composition, and trends of marine debris for the U.S. Pacific Coast and Hawai’i using National Marine Debris Monitoring Program data. Hawai’i had the highest debris loads; the North Pacific Coast region had the lowest debris loads. The Southern California Bight region had the highest land-based debris loads. Debris loads decreased over time for all source categories in all regions except for land-based and general-source loads in the North Pacific Coast region, which were unchanged. General-source debris comprised 30–40% of the items in all regions. Larger local populations were associated with higher land-based debris loads across regions; the effect declined at higher population levels. Upwelling affected deposition of ocean-based and general-source debris loads but not land-based loads along the Pacific Coast. LNSO decreased debris loads for both land-based and ocean-based debris but not general-source debris in Hawai’i, a more complex climate-ocean effect than had previously been found.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.02.008
en
Trends in Marine Debris along the U.S. Pacific Coast and Hawai’i 1998-2007
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