PORTUGAL IN THE BLACK LIST OF THE MOST POLLUTED WATERS

The first study on the rubbish that floats in the Portuguese sea, carried out by a team of biologists from the University of Aveiro (UA), registered more than 750 thousand objects floating.

The study, centered only on rubbish more than two centimeters long and carried out in almost the entire Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), places Portuguese waters on the "black list" of the most polluted ones, especially since the rubbish that floats on the surface of the sea Corresponds only to a small part of what is under water.

Data collection was done in the summer of 2011 by several observers during the ocean campaign on board the Santa Maria Manuela vessel, under the "LIFE + MarPro" project, coordinated by the University of Aveiro. The data now beginning to be published correspond to the area between 50 and 220 nautical miles, thus covering much of the Portuguese EEZ.

With a total register of 752,740 objects and an average density of floating marine debris of 2.98 items per square kilometer, the values ​​recorded in the national EEZ are similar to those of studies conducted, for example, in the North Sea, in the coastal waters of the Japan and the Antarctic Peninsula.

According to Sara Sá, researcher responsible for the study of the Department of Biology (DBio) of the University of Aveiro, among the materials found, plastic dominates. Next are styrofoam, debris from fishing materials, paper, cardboard and lumber.

Garbage with dimensions between 10 centimeters and one meter was the most abundant.

These objects, explains Sara Sá, "included several types of plastics, cables and fishing lines, being therefore very resistant and persistent material, being able to float for long periods of time".

It was in the north of the Exclusive Economic Zone that the team found greater diversity and abundance of garbage, a result that the researcher believes is related to the high number of shipping corridors and fishing vessels operating in this area, which may represent important sources of garbage floating in deeper ocean waters.

SAISI