The research task aims to collect and integrate all the available data on marine debris in the Belgian Marine Environment into one multi-purpose and user-friendly database. Existing datasets (e.g. Coastwatch & OSPAR) and data originating from volunteer projects (e.g. Fishing for litter & Lenteprikkel) will be integrated in the database. New datasets (collection of marine debris at the  Belgian coast and observations at sea) will be created by the University of Ghent. 

Data will be provided on the concentrations of important micro pollutants potentially adsorbed to (micro)plastics. Laboratory experiments will show whether bio-transfer of these adsorbed pollutants from (ingested) plastics to marine organisms is possible. This could be of great importance for marine risk assessment as floating marine debris can drift far away from the shore and could thus translocate part of the pollution from close to the mainland (e.g. from within heavily polluted harbours) to ecosystems far into the ocean.

 The project will produce detailed data on the occurrence and distribution of macro- and micro-debris in the Belgian marine environment, and on the effects of both types of debris on marine organisms (especially on invertebrates and birds). The combination of both datasets will allow for a detailed assessment of the risks of marine debris on our marine environment.

 

 

Data collected by volunteers	dataset info
Data collected by volunteers: - Beach cleaning actions, like Lenteprikkel , where data is collected at the beach - European actions for fishermen (Fishing for Litter), where fishermen bring the debris, collected while fishing, ashore
Data collected by BMM (Ospar Project)	dataset info
Data collected in the context of an OSPAR-project: “Monitoring of marine litter in the OSPAR region” (2001-2006), where the beaches of Koksijde and Oostende were cleaned every season, and data was sorted and noted according to the OSPAR-classification of debris
Data collected by INBO	dataset info dataset info
- oil victims/beached birds: Every month, all beached birds are collected at the Belgian coast. In this database, death cause is mentioned, and from this point, we are able to extract all data where birds were entangled - observations of marine litter during INBO-sea bird counts During bird countings by boat on the Belgian Continental Shelf, also visible macrodebris was identified.
Data collected for this project: Beach sampling	dataset info
Data collected for the AS-MADE project, where 4 beaches were manually cleaned from high water level till low water level: all visible debris was collected and analyze
Data collected for this project: Neustonnet	dataset info
Data collected for the AS-MADE project, where a neustonnet was used to sample the sea surface. Collected data was analyzed in the lab, the same way as the beach samples.