Marine seabed litter in Siberian Arctic: A first attempt to assess

Alexandr N Benzik; Alexei M Orlov; Mikhail A Novikov

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112836

Marine seabed litter in Siberian Arctic: A first attempt to assess

Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Nov:172:112836. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112836. Epub 2021 Aug 18.

Authors

Alexandr N Benzik¹, Alexei M Orlov², Mikhail A Novikov¹

Affiliations

¹ Polar branch of the Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (PINRO named after N.M. Knipovich), Murmansk, Russia.
² Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IO RAS), Moscow, Russia; Russian Federal Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO), Moscow, Russia; A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution RAS (IPEE RAS), Moscow, Russia; Tomsk State University (TSU), Tomsk, Russia. Electronic address: orlov@vniro.ru.

PMID: 34418709
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112836

Abstract

The pollution of the Siberian Arctic seas bottom by anthropogenic debris is assessed for the first time based on the results of bottom trawl surveys conducted in the Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, and Kara seas in 2019. In the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, no seabed litter was detected. The debris on bottom and near bottom was found in the Kara and Chukchi seas only. Plastic was the most frequently occurring type of seabed litter. The main source of the garbage encountered in the Kara Sea is the waste related to fishing activities in the Barents Sea.

Keywords: Chukchi Sea; Debris; East Siberian Sea; Kara Sea; Laptev Sea; Waste.

MeSH terms

Arctic Regions
Oceans and Seas
Plastics*

Substances

Plastics