Sources of marine debris for Seychelles and other remote islands in the western Indian Ocean

• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114497
• Publication Date: 2023-01-14T10:25:04Z
• Authors: Noam S. Vogt-Vincent; April J. Burt; David M. Kaplan; Satoshi Mitarai; Lindsay A. Turnbull; Helen L. Johnson
• Keywords: Marine debris; Marine Pollution

Vast quantities of debris are beaching at remote islands in the western Indian Ocean. We carry out marine dispersal simulations incorporating currents, waves, winds, beaching, and sinking, for both terrestrial sources debris, to predict where this comes from. Our results show that most these Ocean drifts from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka. Debris associated with fisheries shipping also poses a major risk. accumulation Seychelles is likely seasonal, peaking during February-April. This pattern driven by monsoonal winds may be amplified positive Dipole El-Niño events. underline vulnerability small island states plastic pollution, crucial step towards improved management issue. The trajectories used study available download, our analyses can rerun under different parameter choices.