In partnership with African Parks, BCSS collects marine debris at five carefully selected locations on Benguerra Island. The data gathered from the collections conducted from January until the end of June have been analysed and are now accessible through our half-yearly report. The team has spent a total of 72 hours at the sites, collecting marine debris that has been brought to our Waste Management Facility at the BCSS station, where it was analysed based on the type of waste and type of plastic. The last six months yielded a total of 1.020 kgs, of which the vast majority is plastics.
To read the full report, download the report here.
The five sites which are being surveyed continuously cover different habitats: mudflats, beach, mangroves and seagrass. By foot, the group conducts surveys once per week. The start and end of each survey is determined using GPS coordinates. Surveyers walk in zig-zag motion across the site, collecting all visually recognisable debris into 60L empty sacks. After each survey is completed, the debris is transported to the BCSS Waste Management Facility, where the marine debris is sorted into the following categories: PET bottles, soft plastics, hard plastics, foam/polystyrene, rubber, clothing, fishing gear, aluminium cans, other metals and glass. The total weight of each survey is recorded. Comments and photographs are taken of any unusual observation.
The northern beach location (site A) has yielded the highest amounts of marine debris in the last six months, with 333 kg. At the second beach location, on the northeast side of Benguerra Island, a total of 280 kg was collected. The third-highest amount of marine derbis was collected at the mangrove forest (site D), with a total of 175 kg. The mudflats on the north side of Benguerra Island (site C) accumulated a total of 133 kg, whereas at the seagrass meadows (site E) 97 kg was collected in the last six months.
For questions about this report, please contact:
Karen Bowles,
Research Manager, Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies
Karen.Bowles@bcssmz.org
Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies
Host of the first permanent Ocean Observatory focused on multi-ecosystem time series research in Africa, the Bazaruto Center for Scientific Studies (BCSS) was established in 2017 as in independent, non-profit organisation with a mission to protect and support the fragile ecosystems of the Bazaruto Archipelago, Mozambique. The research station is located on Benguerra Island, off the coast of Mozambique.
