Dec. 2015. Vol. 6(2)ISSN 2287-8971

1. Ocean Currents and Trash Pull Strings in Taiwan
2. TV show launched, targeting anglers' littering, South Korea
3. Countries’ action status on the problem of marine litter, 13th Marine Litter Summit (Japan)
4. Quick glance at the National Marine Litter Pollution from 2007 to 2014 in China
5. Too Much! International Sampling of Litter on the Beach, 2-5th Oct in Chile
6. Stemming the Tide: Land-based Strategies for Plastic-Free Ocean (US)
7. A Brief Introduction to Legislation on Marine Litter in China
8. The suggestions for improvements of oyster farming in Tainan city (Taiwan)
9. One World, One Ocean: 2015 Hilo Symposium on Marine Debris & Tsunami Driftage held in Hawaii (Japan)
10. Coastal Cleanup Highlights in Bangladeshi, Philippines, and Brunei
11. Compare efficiency among representative policies to collect marine debris from sea in South Korea
12. Is microplastic marine debris abundant where meso-plastic debris are numerous?
13. How much plastic debris ends up in the ocean every year?
14. Initiation of Research Project on Environmental Risk Assessment of Microplastics in Korean Waters

Marine Litter News_ 1

Preface
Dear respectful readers from around the world concerned with marine litter,

There has been a rising concern regarding
plastic litter entering the ocean. There isalso an increase of scientific reports whichassess the East and South Asian regions asmajor sources of plastic marine litter in the
global ocean.
However, this volume may stimulate you
because we deliver enormous efforts
happening in the regions. Monitoring on
marine litter in the field and legal
instrument has been implemented in themainland China. Big events were held bothin Taiwan and Japan, covering neighboring countries. You can also see the NGOs' efforts
to find gaps and effective alternatives for management. Long-lasting campaign by media
started in Korea to make a difference in recreational fishing gear which is one of the mostdifficult types of marine litter to solve. Annual coastal cleanups were highlighted in
Bangladeshi, Philippines, and Brunei.
I am very honored to have two special contributors from US and Chile. Mr. Mallos from
Ocean Conservancy, US, introduced the recent publication which is a milestone to seek
alternatives and fundamental prevention of plastic litter in Asian countries. Dr. Thiel from
Chile summarized that the international sampling with kids for the "Our Ocean"
conference, one of the biggest events in 2015 held in Chile.
As a researcher and NGO, I am so proud of our three papers just published. Our researches
are very closely related to the NGO activities: recent knowledge on efficient policies andbetter quantitative evaluation with citizen scientists will be delivered to policy makers aswell as the public. Additional good news is that a research project on microplastics in
Korea was launched.
With truly heart, we welcome three new members of East Asia Civil Forum on Marine
Litter: Kewkradong Bangladeshi and ICC Philippine. Kewkradong Bangladesh hasorganized 'International Coastal Cleanup' in the country since 2006. It is an activity place
for youth. Adventure is the key. This is totally nonpolitical, non-violence, and nonprofitable organization. ICC Philippines has organized ICC since 1994, reaching out
255,000 volunteers in 2015, which is the second largest in the number of participants in theworld. Its goals are to remove trash/debris from beaches and waterways, to increaseawareness on the extent of the marine debris problem, to popularize the concept of waste
management, to promote a clean, healthy and sustainable coastal environment, to change
behaviors that cause pollution.
With love,
Dec 2015,
Sunwook Hong (Ph.D., President of OSEAN)
Marine Litter News_ 2

SAVE THE DATESl 2016 Clean Ocean Business Expo
Date: June 8-12, 2016
Venue: Taipei, Taiwan
For more information, please contact Jason HU (jason@wilderness.tw)
l 2016 World Ocean Day Cleanup Events in Mainland China
Date: Around June 8th, 2016
Participants: Volunteers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan
l Release of 2015 Beach Litter Monitoring Report in Mainland

China
Date: Around June 8th, 2016
Contents: The report is based on the data collected from 72 beach surveys in
12 monitoring sites along the coastline of Mainland China.
l Start of 2016 Beach Litter Monitoring Program in Mainland

China
Date: Starts in January, every two monthSame as 2015, beach surveys in 2016 are conducted every two month in 12
monitoring sites along the coastline of Mainland China.
For more information, please contact Ms. Jingxiu Lu (andrealu0608@hotmail.com)

3 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIES
1. Ocean Currents and Trash Pull Strings - Environmental Groups Join
Hands in Cross Straits Memorandum to Combat Ocean Plastic Pollution
By Jason HU, The Society of Wilderness (Taiwan)
jason@wilderness.tw

Recommended Citation:

Jason Hu. (2015). Ocean Currents and Trash Pull Strings - Environmental Groups Join Hands in Cross Straits
Memorandum to Combat Ocean Plastic Pollution. Marine Litter News, Vol.6(2): 4-6.

Participants from 47 NGOs, voluntary service units, research centers and the public

The "Clean Oceans 2015 Joint Seminar" on September 14th

The three main focal points of the Memorandum of Engagement

ended successfully in the National Museum of Marine Science andon Cross Straits Plastic Pollution, created by the General

Technology with a new Memorandum of Engagement on plastic

Assembly, include:

pollution in the ocean. The International Symposium on CrossStrait included 47 NGOs, voluntary service units, research centers,
and the general public, with more than 150 people attending. The
participants included experts from Chile, the United States, Japan,

1) A unified challenge for others to join us in reducing plastic
pollution in the environment, and the ocean,2) Increasing users' responsibility to think reusable, notdisposable, andHong Kong, Taiwan and China, speaking about plastic pollution

3) To challenge all industries and individuals who use and enjoy

and marine litter monitoring and marine conservation issues. For

the ocean to be better stewards/guardians with the entities at thisthe first time ever, national experts and representatives spoke about

event.

"civiceducation",

responsibility,”

policy"andcreatedthree-pointconsensusa"industrial
for

Organizers of the meeting included the Society of Wilderness

Engagement in a new Cross Straits memorandum for collaboration(Taiwan), the Shenzhen Mangrove Wetlands Foundation (China),

on plastic pollution issues.

and the National Museum of Marine Science and Technology. The

Marine Litter News_ 4

and"government

meeting was sponsored by the Society of Entrepreneurs & Ecology

marine environmental groups, and entrepreneurs such as SEE,

(SEE, a foundation in China formed by entrepreneurs of Taiwan

constitute new ideas which will devote more attention to the effort

and China).

of marine litter issues, fulfilling both corporate and social forces.

Under the slogan of "NGO action + Scientific research = the power

Under the slogan of "NGO action + Scientific research = the power

to protect our oceans"to protect our oceans"

Wu Jun-Ren fromAt the opening ceremony on the 12th, the chairman of theSociety of Wilderness, Lai Rong-Xiao, spoke of the impacts oftheNational

marine litter which are far-reaching, and are common issues facing

Museumofmankind, hoping that the two sides can overcome geographic

MarineSciencebarriers between the groups. Huo Liu, Shenzhen Mangrove

and Technology,

Wetlands Conservation Foundation (MCF), Head of Cooperationencourages

theand Development, said “since 2014 the Shanghai Rendu Ocean

participants

andNPO Development Center jointly launched the Guardian of the

all

of

Chinese coastline project, and had so far set up 12 monitoring

society with thepoints in Chinese coastal provinces, along with the Environmental

slogan "know theProtection Agency, and continued to recruit volunteers to join thesea, love the sea,team". SEE Secretary-General, Wang Li-Min, explained that thisandindicates that the essence of cross-strait exchanges created bysustainable oceans."

sectors

care

The

for

symposium's

sloganis"NGO

action + Scientificresearch=thepower to protect our oceans" A clean beach is the easiest way to
encourage care for the ocean, and marine litter monitoring withmore scientific data will bring joint solutions in the region’s
waters. In addition to scientific research, public initiatives,
policies legislation, and industrial research and lectures, allparticipants personally went to the Jinshan District, New Taipei
City State to conduct a beach litter survey that included identifying
Beach cleanup by all participants after symposium (above and right)

the country of origin for some of the litter found, and analyzing the
micro plastic pollution density on the beach.

5 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIES
Throughstatistical-material

Association

analysisofcollected

duringthe-

DalianFujianMunicipal

Environmental

Protection

Volunteers

Provincial

Environmental

Protection

Volunteers

beach study, the group

Association

found that 93 percent of- Fujian Green Technology Culture Promotion

marine- Guangxi Academy

littertobeplastic, of which 20%- Guangzhou outlook and love of nature conservation center

were- Sanya Coral Reef National Nature Reserve Management Officeplastic

bottlesoriginating from China- Hainan shellfish and coral Conservation Society

and- Hainan Dong Fang Miaoxi Public Service Association

Taiwan,re-emphasizing the need

- Hainan Marine Conservation Societyfor- Birds and insects Wood Conservation Centercross-strait

collaboration on marine- Ningbo Beilun District Volunteers Association

plastic pollution.

- Panjin City Dawa environmental science, public service
association (Green Panjin)- Panjin Gull Protection Association

Classification of collected litter- Qinhuangdao City Entrepreneurs Association (urban environmentand development laboratories formats)

NGO/NPO participants include:- Clean Coast volunteer group- Sanya City, the Blue Ribbon Marine Conservation Society

Taiwan participating organizations:- Siming District, Xiamen Greencross Environmental Service- Society of Wilderness- Xiamen Little Gull natural ecological science promotion center- National Museum of Marine Science and Technology- Shenzhen Blue Marine Conservation Society- National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium-- Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation

Environmental Protection Volunteers Association- Plastics Industry Development Center- Tianjin Eco-city green eco-cultural Association of Friends- Slow Down, Mr. Plastic(Friends of Tianjin Green)- Taiwan Watch Institute- Fish Conservation and Center for Sustainable Development- Orchid Island Tribal Cultural Foundation- Zhejiang Culture Promotion of green technology- Penghu Chimei marine ecosystems Care Association- Wenling City Youth Volunteers Association- Taiwan marine environment education promotion association- Chinese mangrove Lin Baoyu Union

The

beautifulcoastaltown

of

Shishi- Taiwan Environmental Information Association- Marine Education Center in Taiwan

Other NGO groups:- New Taipei Water Sports Association- Cientificos de la Basura- R.A.R.E. environmental art studio- Hong Kong Clean Up (Ecozine)- Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN)

Chinese mainland participating organizations:- Ocean Recovery Alliance- Society of Entrepreneurs & Ecology (SEE)- Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC)- Shenzhen Mangrove Wetlands Conservation Foundation (MCF)- Shanghai Rendu Ocean NPO Development Center

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:- North Sea Community Volunteers Association

The Society of Wilderness (Taiwan)- Beijing Water Conservation Foundation

Jason HU: jason@wilderness.tw

Marine Litter News_ 6

City Xiangzhi

2. TV show launched, targeting anglers' littering in Korea
By Sunwook Hong, President of OSEAN
oceanook@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:

Sunwook Hong. (2015). TV show launched, targeting anglers' littering in Korea. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2):7-9.

The show's host, Mr. Lee cleaning around the fishing spot

A TV show, Blue Seas, targeting anglers' littering launched on

In Korea, the number of anglers has been estimated to be 5 to 6

FTV on July the 2nd, 2015. FTV is a TV channel which has served

million comprising about 10% of Korean population. Their

to search unique locations, different species of fish, useful fishingdiscarded fishing gears such as monofilament lines, metal hooks,

gears and techniques, and fishing competitions for anglers in theand lead sinkers have seriously impacted marine lives. In 2013,

whole nation since 2002. The show production team visits popularresearchers of OSEAN reported that at least 45 cases of 21 species

sites (isles, rocks on seashore, breakwall, etc) and highlights empty

have been impacted by marine debris, the most frequent impacting

drink containers, bait wrappings, other rubbish which are litteredthreat comes from recreational fishing gears, and one of theby anglers. The show's host, a fishing guru, Mr. Sung Jin Lee starts

internationallythe show by cleaning around the site and then enjoys fishing. If

Platalea minor has also been seriously threatened. Then OSEAN

there are any anglers who voluntarily pick up rubbish together withhave organized various activities such as publication of books,

him, the host gives them stickers saying "Good Angler: Proud of

making a video and series of banners, and organizing a side event

your effort to protect the seas" which can be put on things such asof the COP 12 meeting of Convention on Biodiversity. Meanwhile,caps, vests, and back packs. Then they visit the same sites again

media coverage of recreational fishing gears and angler's littering

after a month and monitor the change. The producer, Mr. Sung

has been occasional only. This show is expected to play an

Min An says "It is a big challenge to deal with anglers' littering,

important role for making a difference.

endangered

species,

Black-faced

spoonbill,bad behaviours, and environmental issues which has never been
touched on the TV channel".

7 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIESAn angler cleaning voluntarily receives a 'Good Angler' sticker.

The monitoring camera set up to watch anglers' behaviours

Marine Litter News_ 8

Dr. Jongmyoung Lee explaining OSEAN's research results andemphasizing the seriousness of recreational fishing gears impacting
wildlife

Black-faced spoonbill wading in the water and sweeping their beaks
from side-to-side to detect prey (Courtesy: Kisup Lee)OSEAN's booklet to protect the endangered bird from recreational fishing gears

The premiere entitled "We have already known" seemed to strongly and positively affect viewers. Many of them have posted theirexperiences, feelings, supports, and better ideas to the online board. It continues to broadcast every other Thursday until summer in 2016,
consisting of 25 episodes.

9 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIES
3. Countries’ action status on the problem of marine litter - The 13th Marine
Litter Summit 2015 held at Goto, Nagasaki, Japan
By Hiroshi Kaneko, Director of JEAN,

HQM07204@nifty.com
Recommended Citation:

Hiroshi Kaneko. (2015). Countries’ action status on the problem of marine litter - The 13th Marine Litter
Summit 2015 held at Goto, Nagasaki, Japan. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 10-12.

From October 23 to 25, 2015, JEAN hosted the Marine Litter
Summit at Fukue Island in Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture. This

he/she has attempted to do but has not yet realized", and the groupmembers challenged brainstorming ideas to achieve the goal.

symposium was the 13th as of this year.
In the first attempt, we carried out workshop and group
discussions. At the marine litter summit, we always had quite
many participants. As such, we were unable to take time foreveryone to give presentations. This was to share information
regarding where and what kind of actions that participating
people were developing and expanding.
Applying the method of World Café and changing members of
the tables, self-introductions were made and we shared our
opinions and remarks on "good things we find from marine
litter". In that group discussion, a presentation speaker joined
each group. The speaker explained his/her actions and "things that

The participants who put effort into the common action of"addressing the problem of marine litter" seemed to have broughthome back many ideas and new willingness through theworkshop and the group discussions.
For the principal theme of "strengthening the international
cooperation", presenters from Republic of Korea, People’s
Republic of China, and Republic of China (Taiwan) reported thepresent state of the marine litter issue. The table below shows the
non-governmental organizations’ approaches to the marine litter
problem from their point of view, including Japanese NGOs. The
table evaluates how well their approaches moved ahead in thefield of monitoring, legal systems, collection and disposal,

Beach cleanup with all participants in the 13th Marine Litter Summit (Oct 23~25, Goto, Nagasaki, Japan)

Marine Litter News_ 10

environmental education and international cooperation.

approach clear will be a good reference to examine the future
allocation of their segregation of duties.

The assessment criteria was not preliminarily setup, thus, thosein the table are subjective views of parties of NGOs – NGO people
who attended the Marine Litter Summit. We evaluated our statusof progress in each country’s area of policy. The purpose of
making the table was to use as a reference material in order tobring forward the discussion at the Summit.
The table can show the whole picture: which policy area isprogressing or not in the provision for the problems of marine litterin the regions of Japan, China, Korea, and Taiwan. By this work,
we are able to recognize what policy area needs to be strengthened
specially.

Presentation from overseas participants

Workshop using the method of World Café

Alternatively, in the policy area that has been successful, we
could analyze the reason why it has been so and the countries andregions where the matter is not in progress can consult analysis. In
addition, to make national and local governments’ differences inGroup discussion to evaluate current status of marine litter pollution

During the discussion section at the Marine Litter Summit,
unfortunately, we were only able to share the whole picture
because we could not secure enough discussion time. The

councillor, Minister’s Secretariat of Japanese Ministry ofEnvironment said, however, that it could be used as NGOs’
evaluation to refer.

Presentation from overseas participants

The work, which is to get an overview of the current state ofmarine litter, is meaningful while it relates to a number of states ina broad array of the sphere. It would be good if the member who
engaged this newsletter to setup an opportunity to do the work
together.

11 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIES
Evaluation by workshop participants from Japan, Korea, mainland China and Taiwan: monitoring, legislation, collection, awareness, andinternational cooperation

Monitoring
Collection/Management

Diffusion

Environment
al Education

GlobalCooperation

Japan

Other

Legislative
SystemICC

Action Status

Central

―

△

△

―

X

X

(NOWPAP)

Local

―

△

X

○

△

△

△

○

△

―

○

△

△

△

Central

―

△

○

△

△

△

(NOWPAP)

Local

―

△

△

△

△

△

△

△

△

―

○

△

△

○

―

△

△

○

△

X

X

○

△

―

△

△

○

X

Central

○

○

△

○

△

△

(NOWPAP)

Local

△

X

△

△

△

△

△

NGO/NPO

○

△

X

△

○

○

○

◎ Satisfied○ Needs Improvement

Government

NGO/NPO

China

Government

NGO/NPO

TaiwanGovernment

Central
Local

NGO/NPO

Korea

Government

We also had an exchange of views on how we could better
address the matters that had not been addressed as much.
JEAN is contemplating holding the Marine Litter Summit in
Mie Prefecture, where the G7 leaders summit will be held, in 2016.

Marine Litter News_ 12△ Lacking

X Nothing has been done

4. Quick glance at the national marine litter pollution from 2007 to 2014
in China
By Dongqi Zhang, Research Assistant of Shanghi Rendu
13917471317@126.com

Recommended Citation:

Dongqi Zhang. (2015). Quick glance at the national marine litter pollution from 2007 to 2014 in China. Marine
Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 13-15.

In order to introduce the current temporal trend of the pollution

The weights of marine litter surveyed on sea surface, sea shore,

in China, we preliminarily analyzed marine litter data from 2007 toand seabed are summarized in terms of weight and number in2014 which have been provided by 'The Bulletin of Marine

Table 1 and Figure 1. Those of sea shore litter have been

Environmental Condition in China'. The Bulletin has been yearly

apparently higher than those of sea surface and seabed. And thoseissued(www.soa.gov.cn/zwgk/hygb/),

have been on the rise obviously since 2011 and then became aproviding raw survey data (numbers and weights) of marine litter

historical high (> 3,000 kg/km2) in 2014. However, those of seabedsurveyed on sea surface, sea shore, and seabed nationwide (seelitter have shown the downward trend and remained as similarwww.soa.gov.cn for detailed informationlevel as those of sea surface litter since 2012. The weights of sea

throughthewebsitesurface litter have been constantly remained at the lowest level
1. Densities of marine litter on sea surface, sea shore, andsince the first survey year.

seabedTable 1. Densities (kg/km2) of main categories of marine litter surveyed on sea surface, sea shore and seabed from 2007 to 2014.

* Source: 'The Bulletin of Marine Environmental Condition in China'

13 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIES
2. Average number of marine litter on sea surface, sea shore,and seabed
As shown in Table 2 and Figure 2, the average numbers of sea
shore litter from 2007 to 2014 have been apparently higher thanthose of the other compartments. The numbers have increased until
2012 and then slightly decreased. In contrast, litters of sea surface
and seabed have been comparatively stable.
3. Composition of marine litter on sea surface, sea shore, andFigure 1. Densities (in total, kg/km2) of marine litter. Source: 'The
Bulletin of Marine Environmental Condition in China'

seabedThe high-density areas among sea shore sites were mainly

Table 3 and Figure 3 show relative proportion of the main

located in tourism and leisure area, aquaculture fishery area, andcomposition of marine litter (from average numbers) threeport shipping area. The most abundant litters in tourism and leisuredifferent compartments. Although there have been missing data,

area were domestic wastes such as plastic bags and plastic bottles.

we can crudely compare the main compositions contributing to

Plastic and expanded polystyrene wastes have been found in larger

marine litter.

quantity in aquaculture fishery area.
On the sea surface, plastic and polystyrene foam litter showed
2

Table 2. Average number (counts/km ) of main categories of marine
litter surveyed on sea surface, sea shore and seabed from 2007 to 2014.

fluctuation in the opposite directions over the period of 8 years,
staying in higher proportions than wood (Fig. 3a). Plastic seems todecrease in recent years whereas polystyrene foam increase during
the same years. On the sea shore, plastic marine litter has been thehighest over the period and polystyrene foam has taken the second
rank. The other composition has been relatively small in
proportion (Fig. 3b). The composition showing the highest
proportion on seabed litter was plastic as same as in sea shore
compartment and seems to increase over the period.

* Source: 'The Bulletin of Marine Environmental Condition in China'

Table 3. Relative proportions of main composition of marine littersurveyed on sea surface, sea shore, and seabed

Figure 2. Number of marine (counts/km2). *Source: 'The Bulletin ofMarine Environmental Condition in China'* Source: 'The Bulletin of Marine Environmental Condition in China'

Marine Litter News_ 14

(a)

(b)

(c)

Finally we could find that quantities of marine litter have beenhuge on sea surface, sea shore and sea bed and showed significant
increase within some period of time. The percentages of plastic
and polystyrene have remained at high level in spite of fluctuation.
Due to their durability, plastic litter will be more difficult to deal
Figure 3. Relative proportions (%) of main composition of marine
litter surveyed on sea surface (a), sea shore (b), and seabed (c).
*Source: 'The Bulletin of Marine Environmental Condition in China'

with without human control. We could not find detailed trends andfactors affecting the results in this analysis but much more efforts
are needed to understand the situation of marine litter pollution andto efficiently control in China.

15 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)SPECIAL REPORTS
5. Too much! International sampling of litter on the beach 2-5th October
2015
By Martin Thiel, Universidad Católica del Norte, Coquimbo, Chilethiel@ucn.cl

Recommended Citation:

Martin Thiel. (2015). Too much! International sampling of litter on the beach 2-5th October 2015. Marine Litter
News, Vol. 6(2): 16-17.

Litter sampling by students in 3m x 3 m quadrant: Chile, Taiwan, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, and Germany

Too much litter on the beach!

to classify and count all litter in a 3m x 3m quadrant (6 to 60
quadrants per beach). This is the first time that this samplingThis was the conclusion that the 60 participants of the Marine

method, which was developedand is frequently employed by

Science Youth Camp in Valparaiso, Chile, reached after analyzing“Cientificos de la Basura” (Litter Scientists) from Chile, has

the results of the first-ever international litter sampling! The

also been used in other countries.

national Marine Science Youth Camp brought together students
from across the country as international leaders convened for the

From the global sampling, litter densities ranged fromInternational Conference “Our Ocean”. During two days packed

approximately 1 item per square meter to more than 12 items perwith activities, the children also visited a local beach with theirsquare meter, most of which were single-use plastic items. The

teachers to examine the state of marine litter. In this standardized

participants of the science camp concluded that the quantity ofscientific sampling, local students were joined by fellow students

litter is too much for a healthy ocean and are committed to act infrom Taiwan, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, and Germany

their homes and schools. In addition, the students encouraged

Marine Litter News_ 16

others to join them in this important challenge. Despite thechallenge’s difficulties, the students expressed their wishes to help
each other become better guardians of the oceans along with family
members, friends, neighbors, politicians, and businesses to reduce
the use of single-use plastic items.

The organizing institutions, participating teachers, and especiallythe students were excited about this unique opportunity to learn
about marine science together, and collaborate with fellow students
from other countries. We are planning to repeat this experience inthe future, and in particular hope that plastic pollution in the oceans

Results from 9 beaches in 6 countries

will soon improve, because the students would prefer to exploreFormarine life rather than count litter. The students and this samplingwww.chileesmar.cl/camp/reminded us once more that keeping the oceans clean is

For contact: thiel@ucn.cl, Universidad Católica del Norte,

everybody’s task!

moreinformation:www.cientificosdelabasura.cl

andCoquimbo, Chile

Wish to help students become better guardians of the oceans along with family members, friends, neighbors, politicians,
and businesses to reduce the use of single-use plastic items

17 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)SPECIAL REPORTS
6. Stemming the Tide: Land-based strategies for a plastic-free ocean
By Nicholas J. Mallos, Director, Trash Free Seas Program, Ocean Conservancy
nmallos@oceanconservancy.org

Recommended Citation:

Nicholas J. Mallos. (2015). Stemming the Tide: Land-based strategies for a plastic-free ocean. Marine Litter
News, Vol. 6(2): 17-20.

80 percent of ocean plastic comes from land

Plastic provides many benefits to modern society―it serves toocean. Though the oceans face many issues, plastic is of particular

promote public health, quality of life, and economic growthconcern, given its persistence and potential to negatively impact

through medical technology, reduced costs associated with thewildlife. From Arctic ice to deep sea sediments, our ocean is now

transportation of consumer goods, safe food packaging and better

littered with plastic debris. Recent research published in Science

access to clean drinking water. With strong economic growth overby Jambeck et al. (2015)1 estimated that 4.8 to 12.7 million metric

the last two decades, many developing countries have madetons of plastic enter the ocean each year from land-based

significant strides in reducing poverty and fostering a rapidly

sources―primarily due to a lack of waste management systems.

growing middle class.

Without steps taken to manage this waste, it is estimated that there

As plastic consumption continues to grow across the globe, anincreasing amount of these plastics are finding their way into the1will be 1 ton of plastic in the ocean for every 3 tons of finfish by2025.

Jambeck et al. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347, p. 768-771.

Marine Litter News_ 18

Dagupan beach bags in Philippines

One Ton Plastic, Three Tons Fish

While all countries with coastal access contribute to the ocean
plastics problem, research now shows that more than half of thematerial leaked into the ocean comes from five rapidly developing
countries—China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand, inorder of magnitude.2 These high levels of ocean plastic pollution
are largely a result of a fundamental mismatch between the amountof plastic being used and the capacity of the in-country waste
management systems to handle these greater influxes of waste.
Dagupan beach bags in Philippines

Through our Trash Free Seas Alliance®, Ocean Conservancy
worked with a global research firm and partners from both industry

weighs potential plastic waste reduction solutions and the relevant

and conservation NGO sectors to build upon the growing body of

economics of each.

science in this area to understand the problem in a way that
informs solutions. In doing so, we conducted analyses on waste

The report identifies ways this global crisis can be diverted

management challenges and opportunities in the priority countries

through a set of strategies rooted in stopping plastic pollution inwhere ocean plastic inputs are currently largest, with intensive in-

the first place. By implementing a plan that begins at the local

country interviews and site visits conducted in China and thelevel, a 65 percent reduction of plastic pollution can be achieved in

Philippines. Our report, Stemming the Tide, analyzed where thethese five countries, which would mean a 45 percent reduction ofmajority of ocean plastic comes from and how it leaks into theplastics flowing into the ocean globally. There is no “one size fits

ocean, examines regional differences of pollution pathways,

all” solution; achieving this global reduction requires the2

Jambeck et al. 2015, includes Sri Lanka in its estimates of top five countries (at Rank 5); our findings in China and the Philippines suggest that a reevaluation of plastic leakage quantity for Sri Lanka might reveal a lower ranking than originally believed, with Thailand replacing Sri Lanka in the
top five countries.
19 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)SPECIAL REPORTS
following mix:

identify the actorsthat need to be involved, and determine thefunds required to drive this effort as a global flagship initiative that·

26 percent:

Close “pollution” points within thecollection system by optimizing transport systems tostands for a new, collaborative, and effective way of addressing a
global challenge.

eliminate illegal dumping, and closing or improving dumpsites located near waterways.
·

23 percent:Increase waste collection rates by offering

expanded services. Plastic waste is over twice as likely to
end up in waterways and the ocean if uncollected.
·

16 percent:

Keep leakage points closed by increasing thevalue of waste. Manually sort waste in rural areas to extract
high value plastic waste for recycling and evaluate thedeployment potential for environmentally and socially
responsible conversion technologies to extract low value
waste.

In addition we must work with industry to introduce newmaterials, recovery, and recycling approaches that will allow
uncontrolled plastic waste to peak globally by 2030. Assuming that
local waste management systems can sustain reductions andcontinue to increase collection, ocean plastic pollution will
Raising Collection Rates 78 percent

continue to decline over subsequent years. However, even a 98
percent collection rate and sophisticated waste disposal alone donot suffice to reduce plastic pollution to zero. This is primarily
because the overall quantity of plastic—and therefore the small
fraction that is uncollected—will continue to rise in line withgrowth in consumption. Therefore, improvements to waste
management must also be accompanied by reductions in usage ofplastic and material redesign if we hope to achieve lasting
reductions in ocean plastic pollution.

Ocean Conservancy has been a leading voice on the impact ofmarine debris for thirty years through the International Coastal
Cleanup®. However, what we have learned in the last year
reaffirms that a renewed commitment to stem the tide of plastics inthe ocean is desperately needed. If we hope to protect the ocean
from plastics, we must look to the land for solutions. While thesituation is large and daunting, it is not insurmountable. It is not
too late. Now is the time to act.

The health of our ocean – and that of the planet itself – depends
upon the collective action we take today to reduce the flow ofplastics into the ocean. Industry leaders, NGOs and investors,
along with local, national and multilateral government entities,
need to jointly define the architecture of such a global program,Marine Litter News_ 20

Report Link:
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/stemmingthetide

OPINIONS
7. A Brief Introduction to Legislation on Marine Litter in China
By Dongqi Zhang, Research Assistant of Shanghi Rendu
13917471317@126.com

Recommended Citation:

Dongqi Zhang. (2015). A Brief Introduction to Legislation on Marine Litter in China . Marine Litter News, Vol.
6(2): 21-24.

1. Legislation history

Environment by Marine Engineering Construction Projects(enacted in 2006), Regulations on Prevention of Pollution toLegislation on marine litter in China began in 1980s. In 1982,
China enacted Marine Environment Protection Law of People’s

Marine Environment by Vessels (enacted in 2009) and Islands
Protection Law (enacted in 2009).

Republic of China (revised in 1999; revised in 2013), which was
the first comprehensive law on marine environment protection. But

In the 21st century, China has enacted successively Law on

the law did not include articles on prevention of marine litter or the

Promotion of Cleaner Production (enacted in 2002), Regulations

concept of 'marine litter prevention'. The importance of marine

on Prevention of Environmental Pollution to Inland Water Area by

litter as a marine environmental issue had not been recognized.

Vessels (enacted in 2005), Law on Promotion of Recycling
Economy (enacted in 2008) and National Marine Functional

During 1983 and 1990, China successively enacted a series ofZonation Schema (enacted in 2008). “Relation Schema” islaws and regulations to strengthen legislation on marine litter,taking place of “Sub Schema” or “Point Pattern”, andincluding Marine Traffic Safety Law (enacted in 1983),

comprehensive inter-subsystem legislation on marine litter isRegulations On the Dumping of Waste at Sea (enacted in 1985;

commencing.

revised in 2011), Regulations On Prevention of Environmental
Pollution by Ship-breaking (enacted in 1988), Regulations On

In 2008, the State Council approved the Outline for Planning ofPrevention of Pollution to the Marine Environment by Coastal

National Marine Cause Development, which was the first general

Construction Projects (enacted in 1990; revised in 2007) andRegulations On Prevention of Pollution to the Marine Environment
by Land-based Pollutants (enacted in 1990).

planning in the marine field since the foundation of People’s
Republic of China. As the new milestone of the marine cause, it
hasimportantguidingsignificancefor

enhancingthecomprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of the
From 1990s, China further elaborated laws on marine litters,with attention paid to prevention and control of land-based marine
litter, by enacting the following laws and regulations: Law ofTerritorial Waters and Contiguous Zone (enacted in 1992), Law on
Prevention of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste (enacted in
1992; revised in 2004; revised in 2013), Exclusive Economic Zone
and Continental Shelf Law (enacted in 1992), Regulations on
Environment Protection for Construction Projects (enacted in1998), Sea Area Use Law (enacted in 2001), Interim Provisions on
Environmental Impact Assessment of Marine Engineering (enacted

marine cause and accelerating the building of a marine power. The
Outline puts forward various key tasks including the sustainable
use of marine resources, marine environment protection andecological conservation, planning and coordination of marine
economy, marine commonweal service, marine law enforcement
and protection of legal rights, international marine affairs andmarine technology and education. It also includes supporting
measures for administration and coordination, administrationaccording to law, talent strategy, enhancing capabilities, increasing
investment and enhancing awareness about marine environment.

in 2004), Regulations on Prevention of Pollution to Marine

21 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)OPINIONS
However, until now, China has not enacted a special law on

resource and environment conditions. It is a fundamental task formarine litter, and rules about it scatters in concerning articles ofmarine environment management which, by integrating current

laws and regulations on marine environment protection, solidstate of sea development and the need of social economy

waste prevention and environmental impact assessment.

development, divides sea area into different areas with special
dominant function for different development modes to achieve

In general, a legal system to prevent marine litter in China has

maximum overall efficiency”. Article 12 of Sea Area Use Law

come into its early being, which is led by Environment Protection

stipulates, “Marine function zoning plans shall be subject toLaw, guided by National Marine Functional Zonation Schema andexamination and approval by different levels. The national marine

Outline for Planning of National Marine Cause Development,function zoning plan shall be submitted to the State Council forbased on Marine Environment Protection Law, Law on Prevention

approval. The marine function zoning plan of a coastal province,of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, Law on Promotion ofautonomous region or municipality directly under the Central

Cleaner Production, Law on Promotion of Recycling Economy,

Government shall, after examination and consent by the people's

National

ongovernment of the said province, autonomous region or

Environmental Impact Assessment and Regulations on Prevention

municipality, be submitted to the State Council for approval. The

of Environmental Pollution to Inland Water Area by Vessels,

marine function zoning plan of a coastal city or county shall, after

supported by Regulations on Prevention of Pollution to Marine

examination and consent by the people's government of the said

Environment by Vessels, Interim Provisions on Environmental

city or county, be submitted for approval to the people's

Impact Assessment of Marine Engineering, and Regulations On

government of the province, autonomous region or municipality

Prevention of Pollution to the Marine Environment by Coastal

directly under the Central Government where the city or county is

Construction Projects. It is safe to declare that the legal system onlocated, and reported to the department in charge of marine

MarineFunctional

Zonation

Schema,Lawmarine litter in China, through the more than 40 years of legal
system constructing, now has its embryonic form.

2. Introduction to the overall legal system on marine litter

In China, the legal system on marine litter can be divided into
macro-system on marine litter and micro-system on marine litter.
In order to prevent harm caused by marine litter, the macro-system
on marine litter devotes to dividing marine functional zones andplanning marine environment protection through coordinatedplanning and proper distribution. As to the micro-system on marine
litter, it prevents harm through establishing measures about
environmental impact assessment of construction projects, about
rational ship-breaking and against actions such as abandoning andpiling up solid waste along shore and beach.

2.1 Macro-system on marine litter
Marine functional zonation schema is “to define dominantfunction and scope of applicability for sea area according to thenatural resource and social attributes of sea area as well as natural

Marine Litter News_ 22

administration under the State Council for the record.” National
Marine Functional Zonation Schema of 2008 divides China’s
marine functional zone into five categories: development andutilization area, control and protection area, nature conservationarea, special function area and reservation area, which are further
divided into ten sub-categories of major marine functional areas
including port shipping area, fishery resources utilization andconservation area, tourist area, sea water resources utilization area,
sea area for industrial use, sea conservation area, special use area
and reservation area, with requirements for conservation in theutilization process and management for each.

Marine environment protection planning is the overall planningin a certain period for marine environment protection, marine
environment restoration and utilization, exploitation, protection,
restoration and management of various marine resources in theadministration area according to marine environment condition ofa country or region, marine resources characteristics and the needof national economy development. Article 7 of Marine
Environment Protection Law stipulates, “The State shall draw up,

in accordance with the marine functional zonation scheme,

marine administration shall not approve the report of marine

national marine environment protection plan and regional marine

environmental impact without consulting departments in charge ofenvironment protection plans in key sea areas. Relevant People's

marine, maritime and fishery administration and environment

Governments of the Provinces, Autonomous Regions andprotection department of army. Environmental impact assessment

Municipalities directly under the Central Government in theof ship-breaking factories requires that ship-breaking organizations

coastal areas adjacent to key sea areas and the departments

must be equipped with or set up oil-intercepting devices, waste oil

invested by the law with power to conduct marine environment

receiving devices, oil-containing waste water reception andsupervision and administration may set up regional co-operation

treatment devices or facilities and recycling and disposal site fororganization in marine environment protection areas, responsible

waste, preventing ship-breaking pollution. Ship-breaking shall not

for the implementation of regional marine environment protection

proceed without acceptance certificate authorized by environment

plans in key sea areas, prevention and control of marine

protection

environment pollution and marine ecological conservation work.”

environment impact report/sheet.

2.2 Current state of micro-system on marine litter

department

which

is in

charge of approving

Proper ship-breaking system requires properly breaking up
obsolete vessels at ship-breaking ports, dock or beach or on

Assessment system for environmental impact of marine litter,completely on water and preventing marine environment pollution

according to different subjects, can be divided into environmental

by marine litter. Ship-breaking organizations must be equipped

impact assessment for coastal projects, environmental impact

with or set up oil-intercepting devices, waste oil receiving devices,

assessment for marine projects and environmental impact

oil-containing waste water reception and treatment devices orassessment for ship-breaking factories. Environmental impact

facilities and recycling and disposal site for waste, preventing ship-assessment for coastal projects applies to organizations responsible

breaking pollution. Ship-breaking shall not proceed without

for coastal construction projects, which shall, in the feasibility

acceptance certificate authorized by environment protection

stage of the construction project, conduct scientific research on

department which is in charge of approving environment impact

marine environment, choose an appropriate construction site

report/sheet. Ship-breaking as a way to recycle waste, if notaccording to natural and social conditions and compose an

managed properly, results in marine environment pollution.

environmental impact report, which shall be subject to examination
and approval of the department in charge of environment

Abandoning and piling up solid waste along shore and beach isprotection administration. The department shall not approve theforbidden. Article 38 of Marine Environment Protection Law

report without consulting departments in charge of marine,

stipulates, “The abandoning, piling up and disposal of mining

maritime and fishery administration and environment protection

tailing, waste ores, cinders, garbage and other solid waste along

department of army. Environmental impact assessment for marine

shore and beach shall be conducted in accordance with relevant

projects assesses whether a marine construction project is inprovisions of Law of the People's Republic of China on theaccordance with marine function zonation schema, marine

Prevention and Control of Environment Pollution Caused by Solidenvironment protection schema and relative national environment

Waste.” Article 40 of Law of the Peoples Republic of China onprotection standards. The organization responsible for the project

Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste

shall, in the feasibility stage of the construction project, compose astipulates, “Urban household waste shall, in accordance with thereport of marine environmental impact, which shall be subject toregulations of the administrative departments for environmental

examination and approval of the department in charge of marine

sanitation, be placed at designated spots and shall not be dumped,

administration and for the record and inspection of the department
in charge of environment protection. The department in charge oflittered or piled up at will.” Any organization or person shallfollowing regulations of the administrative departments for

23 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)OPINIONS
environmental sanitation of People’s Government piles up waste

Proper disposal of urban household waste. Urban household

at designated spots, and shall not abandon or pile up waste along

waste contributes a heavy portion to marine litter, a considerable

shore and beach.

proportion of which results from careless dumping and improper
disposal. The fourth subparagraph of Article 16 of Regulations on

Verification of capability to collect waste from vessels. The

Urban Household Waste stipulates, “Urban household waste mustsecond subparagraph of Article 62 of Marine Environment

not be dumped, littered or piled up at will”. According to it, any

Protection Law stipulates, “Those engaged in the business oforganization or person must not dump, litter or pile up urban

collection of the pollutants, waste and garbage from vessels andhousehold waste at will and must dispose it according to relative

the operation of vessel cabin cleaning and washing must possess

provisions.

corresponding capabilities of pollutant collection and treatment.”
According to it, any organization engaged in the business ofA series of water area administration measures. Regulations oncollecting waste from vessels must have capabilities of pollutant

Prevention of Environmental Pollution to Inland Water Area bycollection

tasks.

Vessels offers general rules on control of litter in water area, theDepartment of national maritime administration is in charge offirst subparagraph of Article 2 of which stipulates, “All vessels

verification and approval of the ability and qualification of theundertaking sailing, anchoring, working and other activities which

aforementioned organizations.

influence environment of inland water area on inland water area of

andtreatment

corresponding

with

their

People’s Republic of China are subject to the regulations”.
Maintenance of reception facilities. The first subparagraph of
Article 69 of Marine Environment Protection Law stipulates,

According to it, all types of displacement or non-displacement“Ports, docks, loading and unloading spots and shipyards shall, in

ships, rafts, seaplanes, submersibles, mobile platforms and otheraccordance with relevant regulations, be equipped with reception

mobile devices on water, when undertaking sailing, anchoring,facilities to deal with vessel-induced pollutants and waste, andworking and other concerning tasks in water area including rivers,

shall keep these facilities in good conditions.” According to it, allstreams, lakes and reservoirs that are available for sailing, must notorganizations and sites concerning vessel work, including ports,

cause marine litter pollution. The Regulations also set up rules on

docks, loading and unloading spots and shipyards shall, in

waste categorization, collection and storage, set up posts foraccordance with requirements of administrative department ofenvironment supervising administrators, forbids use of non-marine affairs and national and sectorial standards, be equipped

degradable disposable foaming plastic dinnerware and set up ruleswith proper reception facilities to deal with vessel-induced wasteof setting placards on litter.

and shall keep these facilities in good conditions. Administrative
department of marine affairs is in charge of inspecting andexamining equipment, use and maintenance of these facilities.

Marine Litter News_ 24

8. The suggestions for improvements of oyster farming in Tainan city
By Chao Jui Kuang, Researcher of Tainan Community University
c7720831@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:

Chao Jui Kuang. (2015). The suggestions for improvements of oyster farming in Tainan city. Marine Litter
News, Vol. 6(2): 25-27.

Styrofoam buoys and rafts for oyster cultivation are common in Tainan, Taiwan

1.

We want to continue oyster aquaculture Industry.

2.

We want to solve the problem of environmental pollution

One way is to fix the rafts near offshore, while the other way is tocaused by oyster floating rafts.

use floating raft system in the coastal areas and estuary. Floating

We want to continue the environment-friendly and eco-raft system is usually made of Styrofoam or buoy. Two methods offriendly side of oyster farming industry

oyster farming are both used in the city of Tainan. Oyster floating

We need to help oyster farmers deal with the problem ofraft systems have been used since 1987. There are three production

climate change in order to minimize losses.

and marketing group in Tainan oyster farming industry. Over 9558

We hope to extend oyster farming to promote marine leisureof floating rafts were used in 2014, which were also the largest

activities.

scale in Taiwan. The output value of floating oyster farming was

We hope to protect our coastline and reduce erosion. throughover 500 million TWD. For the oyster floating constructions, eachthe improvement in the process of oyster farming

raft usually use buoy, which consist of 18 Styrofoam on average.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Two types of oyster cultivation are commonly used in Taiwan.

We hope to improve farming procedures to make them moresustainable.

25 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)OPINIONS
From March, when annual the harvest season begins, fishers

Oyster cultivation should avoid the typhoon season and collection

would tow oyster rafts ashore. Meanwhile a lot of Marine debris,should be finished before the end of the southwest monsoon,

such as oyster rafts, bamboo and fragment of Styrofoam start to go

without delay by the end of May.

ashore. Such marine debris has brought negative impacts on themarine ecological environment. The most severe pollution peak
happens from May to June, same time every year.

Second, according to the marine environmental load to restrict
the amount of oyster fishermen: control total number of oyster
fishermen so that ecological balance can be kept.

In 2015, oyster collection began at the harvest season but itcame along with fragments of Styrofoam. The coast has been

Third, management of recycling processes could be improved:

occupied by small fragments of Styrofoam. They caused serious

Because the materials can’t be completely replaced immediately,

pollution to marine ecological environment. The pollution had not

the recycle processes become very important. Styrofoam must be

been cleaned up until August. Worse, some fishers broke the rule

manually picked up and classified, and discarded to the designatedand proceeded to oyster farm again. Those oyster rafts andrecycling place (In 2015, the municipal government offered

Styrofoam buoy had went ashore by typhoon in September. They

subsidy for each Styrofoam recycling 30 TWD). Oyster rafts

show that floating rafts and fragment of Styrofoam pollutes theshould be towed to designated places, since the amount is very

coast for about nine months in one year.

large, three areas must have both equipment and manpower to deal
with recycle. For the debris along the coast, Environmental

In order to solve this problem, mayor of Tainan City held aProtection Bureau should arrange cleaning cars to remove otherforum inviting oyster fishermen and NGOs to discuss and try to

debris. Besides, debris removal task must include incinerators, andfind a solution. In recent years, the city government has vigorously

other environmental protection procedures.

advocated oyster farmers to register and reward recycling, and thus
amount of recycled increased year by year. However, the recycle
process still has some problems. Some people would set fire to thepile of oyster rafts to get the wire on top. Sometimes the Styrofoam
would be break into pieces while Excavator does the clean work.
And as those fragments spreadthings got worse.

The municipal government held the second communication
session, focused on processing procedure and future perspectives
in July 15, 2014. Next year, the municipal government held acommunication meeting again, and an officer advocated using a
new type of floating raft. But consensus has yet to be reached. To
solve this problem, our members have discussed with the
Styrofoam material manufacturers to find out the solutions in
October 18, 2015. So far, the Government has not shown its
enforcement as a mandatory improvement.

The recycling processes should be improved, avoiding secondary
pollution.

Fourth,Styrofoammaterial

replacement:

Themunicipal

government should make an announcement and prohibit the use of
Styrofoam within two years. Besides, government should

1. Short-term goals:

stringently demand that oyster fishermen use environmentallyfriendly floating tools.

First, restrict the oyster farming schedule: The entire oyster
farming procedures should be limited to October to April next year.

Marine Litter News_ 26

If 200,000 a year Styrofoam meter, oyster farmers after

Experimental study of wave forces on the moored cables of oyster forming

deducting the original acquisition cost, the extra cost to 1.5 times

platform induced by large waves

the count, the extra funds of about 60 million, the government is

http://ethesys.lib.ntou.edu.tw/cgi-

very easy assist handle.
There were 200,000 blocks of Styrofoam used in oyster farming

bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi?o=dstdcdr&s=id=%22G0M97520032%22.&searchmo
de=basic
In-situ study of the floating raft system for oyster aquaculture

in a year, after subtracting the fishermen original cost, it

http://search.ndltd.org/show.php?id=oai%3Aunion.ndltd.org%3ATW%2F1

approximately equals to 60 million. It’s enough for municipal

01NSYS5282038&back=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.ndltd.org%2Fsearch.php

government to deal with this issue. There are many ways to do so,%3Fq%3Dsubject%253A%2522%25E7%2589%25A1%25E8%25A0%25

such as low-interest loans, or setting up a fund to provide

A3%25E9%25A4%258A%25E6%25AE%2596%2522

financing, or applying central subsidies to enterprises or

Happy Oyster Life

fundraising. For the three production and marketing groups,
government can help them replace the Styrofoam buoy.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.446806238729994.107374187
7.169406916469929&type=3
New type of oyster rafts which is durable and non-pollution
http://udn.com/news/story/7326/1156017

2. Midterm goals:

Symposium of improving oyster cultivation
http://gut-tnh.mohw.gov.tw/tainan/news.asp?id=%7BE6521BAF-E056-

The abandoned oyster shed can be used as an ecological floatingisland for the restoration of marine ecology.
Also, the unused oyster rack can be stacked and bundled to form
an ecological floating island for ecological diversification purpose
and the restoration of marine ecology.

475A-B88F-86C1FDA5FE51%7D
The preliminary study on the effectiveness of water purification and CO2
storage by oyster culture
http://www.tsoe.org.tw/downloads/thesis/2010D9.pdf
Oyster float shed playing "seaweed floating on the sea" to cultivate avariety of biological effects
http://cgi4.nhk.or.jp/eco-

3. Long-term goals:

channel/jp/movie/play.cgi?did=D0013772472_00000
2015 Oyster Reef Ecosystem Services (ORES) Research Update

Persistent oyster shed and tourism fishery development. In

http://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/images/stories/habitats/2015oresresearchup

addition to the use of disposable oyster shed, we can expand thedate.pdf

plan to tourism fishery which is more like fixed fishing and more

Virginia Offers Protection for Some Oyster Reefs

persistent. Like fixed fishery, it has higher investment costs. But
when combined with sightseeing, tourism, water and underwater
activities, its value is even higher than that of oyster cultivation.

http://chesapeakebay.noaa.gov/habitats-hot-topics/virginia-offersprotection-for-some-oyster-reefs
Where oyster to go?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6xhBapV-MQ
Polystyrene , PS

The problem

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND3WhdMDwps
Polystyrene , PS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOaui1JtuWU

Reference:
Oyster farming methods introduced
http://kmweb.coa.gov.tw/knowledge/knowledge_cp.aspx?ArticleId=110435&ArticleType=A&CategoryId=C&kpi=0&dateS=&dateE
The improvment of oyster forming platform under waves affected.
http://ntour.ntou.edu.tw:8080/ir/handle/987654321/29851
Research of Improving on Equipment of Oyster Farm Set up in Open Sea
http://ntour.ntou.edu.tw:8080/ir/handle/987654321/12209

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F8c0bPMWUw
Burning oyster raft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MkCerFu3kI
Polystyrene , PS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z5F39Tpi0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkiH3v-vgaU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkiH3v-vgaU
Ecology under oyster raft
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU8MQ9NCiEY

27 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)

ACTIVITIES
9. One World, One Ocean - 2015 Hilo Symposium on Marine Debris &Tsunami Driftage held in Hawaii
By Hanako Yokota, JEAN International Liaison, World Ocean Collective
yokota.hanako@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:

Hanako Yokota. (2015). One World, One Ocean - 2015 Hilo Symposium on Marine Debris & Tsunami Driftage
held in Hawaii. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 28-29.

World Ocean Collective to keep the communication among regions affected by 2011 Tsunami in Fukushima, Japan (Photo: Hawaii Wildlife Fund)The 2011 Tsunami might have created an immense amount of

knew how important it was to discuss the issue of addressing

debris in the ocean, but it also started created a legacy with ourmarine debris in person from our experiences. We all knew

international relationships between the countries around the Pacificinstantly that we needed to coordinate another opportunity to bring

Ocean. The debris that traveled across the Pacific made us realize

these partners together. That's when the idea of scheduling anotherhow connected we all were, and how we all needed to work

international symposium was proposed.

together to tackle the issue of marine debris.
“2015 Hilo Symposium on Marine Debris & Tsunami Driftage:
World Ocean Collective was created right after Natori

Dialogue on marine debris removal prevention, disaster recovery

symposium hosted by JEAN in 2014 to keep the communicationand making connections around the North Pacific” was hosted byflowing. Members included representatives from Japan, BC

Hawaii Wildlife Fund and World Ocean Collective on December

Canada, Washington, and Hawaii. We asked ourselves what we

5th.

could do as a collective mind to keep the momentum strong. We

Marine Litter News_ 28

Marine Debris Art Display (Photo: Hawaii Wildlife Fund)

Sampling of small plastics

Cleanup group shot (Photo: Hawaii Wildlife Fund)

Something from a boat bathroom (?) washed ashore (Photo: Hawaii
Wildlife Fund)We exchanged information with representative from Hawaii,
Washington, Oregon, and Japan to achieve these four main goals.
Personally, I really think it doesn’t matter where it comes from.
1.

Share effective recovery and removal techniques;

Marine debris is an international issue and we all have to take2.

Spread the word about tsunami and disaster preparedness;action on it locally and make some changes. The more I spend time3.

Share updates and new information about ongoing marine

working on the issue of marine debris, the more I become aware ofdebris prevention work; andmy natural environment and my lifestyle. It is our personal

Make connections and work together to reduce the amount

responsibility to change the culture of disposable plastics, but

of marine debris in our world’s oceans and waterways.

sometimes being new to this marine debris problem I need a little

4.

help. Attending these symposiums, and making new friends makes
Followed by the symposium, 50 of us visited Kamilo Point toyou realize that you are not the only one out there, and there arecollect over 1,000 pounds of marine debris. During the clean up,

always enthusiastic people trying to make a change around thewe recognized familiar debris from Japan and around Asia. We

world.

were able to give information on where it might have originatedfrom and what country the Oriental characters represented.

Like my good friend said, “ To the Sea, for the Sea”
United we stand, one world one ocean.

29 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)CLEANUP HIGHLIGHTS
10-1. Coastal Cleanup in St. Martin's Island, Bangladesh
By Muntasir Mamun, Coordinator, ICC Bangladesh
Muntasir@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:

Muntasir Mamun. (2015). Coastal Cleanup in St. Martin's Island, Bangladesh. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2):30-31.

Before cleanup shot under the slogan "Sea Change"

Kewkradong Bangladesh is the country coordinator forof the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, and forms the southernmost

International Coastal Cleanup, partnering with Ocean Conservancy

part of Bangladesh. It is famous for specimen of corals and richUSA, which is the world’s largest program on marine debris. For

bio-diversity. It is the one and only place in Bangladesh that has

the last 10 years Coca-Cola and Banglalink have been supporting

the specimen of corals.

us in keeping the advocacy program running in St. Martin’s
Island and Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh along with the global
partnership with Ocean Conservancy USA. In our past 4 cleanups
only in St. Martins Island have we picked more than 4000
kilograms of marine debris with the help of 2000 local and visiting
volunteers.

Major Acts:
Advocacy campaign: This year, person-to-person advocacy
campaign will be launched in the island. Maximum number oftourist visits during the month of November and December. So ourgoal is to reach out to more than 7000 tourists and local inhabitantsof the island.

St. Martin's Island is a small island (only 8 sq. km in area) in thenortheastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip

Marine Litter News_ 30

This program will start at the ferry and ferry

terminal of the Island. After reaching on the island, volunteers willreach out to the visiting tourist, hotels and other public places.

sustainable solution for debris.

Expected results:sIncrease in participation of local volunteerssReduction in the number of floating debrissCommunication (semi permanent) materials on marine debris
targeting tourists

Campaigns to stop littering on streets

Session: Marine debris 101
In this session, participating selected volunteers will gain ahands-on experience about marine debris and how to control them.

s

Behavior changed regarding debris among localssSustainable debris management by localssLess pollution of water by land based debrissVolunteers joining this cleanup initiative at St. Martin are
expected to learn the issue of Marine debris, its impact andhow to reduce the pollution. This group of volunteers is goingto play a key role in spreading this message among peers andother networks.

Moreover, impacts and outcomes of marine litters will also becovered in this session. This session will also help them learn how
to organize small cleanups.
Cleanup: This year, along with the cleanup program combining
visiting volunteers and locals, school children will be observed.

Outcomes:
Since the land-based debris is the prime cause behind pollutionof water and marine environment, this program aims to advocate
for the behavioral change of the dwellers and tourists of St. Martin.
Moreover, educating locals and visiting tourist on the effect ofmarine debris with communication material as well as reaching out
through volunteers and placing trash bins, will enhance the debris
management for the betterment of local and global environment.

Engaging local govt. will certainly help this advocacy campaign
to sustain the whole program as well as keep the floating and land
based debris more organized by arranging a place for dumping
debris.

Person-to-person advocacy campaign, reaching 6000 tourists and locals

Placing debris receptacles: Number of debris receptacles will beplaced in the accommodation facilities and shops for greater
visibility of the campaign. Areas including beach, shops, schools
and hotels will be prioritized.

Engaging with local government regarding debris-dumping
location: We have already had a positive meeting with local
authorities regarding spotting a common location for dumping
debris. We will launch a pilot this year and will find out a
Volunteers picking up trash

31 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)CLEANUP HIGHLIGHTS
10-2. 2015 Coastal Cleanup Results in Philippines
By Geronimo P. Reyes, Coordinator, ICC Philippines
gerrypreyes@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:

Geronimo P. Reyes. (2015). 2015 Coastal Cleanup Results in Philippines. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 32-34.

Baywalk Manila Bay area, Manila

People, Pounds, Miles

Results showed 254,500 volunteers conducted beach/shoreline
and waterway cleanups; 296 divers participated in the underwater

A total of 255,104 cleanup volunteers in the Philippines madecleanup and 308 volunteers did the surface cleanups aboard

the 30th International Coastal Cleanup a huge success. This is awatercrafts (Table 1). Underwater cleanup, popularly known in the

41% increase in volunteer turnout from last year’s 107,695.

Philippines as “Scubasurero” yielded 2,301.6 pounds (1,044

Officially held on September 19, 2015, people from differentkg) of trash over 5.3 miles (8.53 km) of underwater areas locatedsectors converged along beaches, waterways, rivers, and coasts toin Cebu, Albay, Iloilo, La Union, Davao Del Norte, Mindoro

take part in this global effort for the coastal and marine

Occidental, Mindoro Oriental, South Cotabato and Zambales

environment. They traversed an estimated total of 722.55 miles

provinces.

(1,162.83 km), filled about 46,191 sacks of trash with an estimatedweight of 638,132.4 pounds (289,451.52kg) or 289.45 metric tons

The 2015 ICC has recorded a total of 48 participating provinces(Figure 1). Huge volumes of participants seen during the ICC camewith 1,085 cleanup sites or barangays (villages). The province offrom the private and public educational sector and from theZambales, located in Central Luzon Island, Philippines at:national and local government sector.

15020’N 120010’ E once again, topped other provinces with

Marine Litter News_ 32

Table 1 - PPM by Cleanup Category

Cebu (9,373), Cavite (6,656), Antique (5,709), Catanduanes(5,441) and Pangasinan (5,427) (Figure 2). Olongapo City,
including the Subic Freeport Zone of the Subic Bay Management
Authority (SBMA) in the province of Zambales, topped the cities
and municipalities with 30,936 volunteers.

A list of all provinces

who actively participated is shown in Table 2.

Figure 2 – Top Ten Provinces in the 2015 ICC

fishing gear, personal hygiene and other trash (Table 3). A detailed
list of all debris items collected during the 2015 ICC is presented
in Table 5.
Figure 1 - People, Pounds, and Miles of ICC Philippines

Top Ten Debris
The “top ten” or the most prevalent debris items recorded in

Debris Breakdown

all the cleanups constitute 63% of the total debris collected. Debris
items in the “top ten” list are the same as last year with foodA total of 5,392,915 debris items were collected by dedicatedvolunteers from land, underwater and watercraft cleanups. They
found all kinds of debris items – from cigarette butts, plastic bags,
food wrappers, takeout/away containers, plastic straws, fishinggears, plastic/foam packaging, and disposable diapers to peculiar
items like umbrellas, shower curtains, toothbrushes, sofas, andunderwear. Most likely to find debris items comprised 77% of thetotal debris collected while the remaining 23% are composed ofwrappers and cigarette butts still the leading debris. Straws/stirrers
rose from the 5th to 3rd rank while takeout/away containers(plastic) also went up by one rank. Grocery bags, other plastic
bags, and plastic lids went down while plastic bottle caps,
beverage bottles (plastic), and cups & plates (plastic) remain on thesame ranks. Grocery/other plastic bags, cigarette butts andstraw/stirrers are considered the most prevalent debris for six
consecutive years (2010-2015).

33 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)CLEANUP HIGHLIGHTS
Table 3- Total Debris Collected by Category

Table 4 – Top Ten Debris for 2015 ICC – Philippines

Table 2 – List of Participating Provinces
Table 5 – List of Debris Collected 2015 ICC

Marine Litter News_ 34

10-3. Coastal Cleanup in Brunei
By Alan Tan, Coordinator of ICC Brunei
coastalcleanupbrunei@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:

Alan Tan. (2015). Coastal Cleanup in Brunei. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 35-36.

Volunteers on Meragang Beach pose for a photo with the Site Captains before the start of the cleanup

BOTTLES, cigarette butts, wrappers and even tyres were

The massive simultaneous cleanup effort in the districts – whichcollected, bagged and disposed of from the sandy shores of Telisaiis the second of its kind to be held – was jointly organised byand Danau beaches in Tutong in the morning of 19th September

Brunei Shell Joint Ventures (BSJV), Shell Deepwater Borneo

2015.

(SDB) and Brunei Gas Carriers (BGC) to commemorate theInternational Coastal Cleanup 2015 (ICC2015).

It was also a similar sight at the Silver Jubilee and the
Perkelahan Lumut beaches in the Belait district as well as Muara
and Meragang beaches in the Brunei-Muara district.

A total of 758 volunteers – comprising government officials andpersonnel such as the district offices in all three districts, the Royal
Brunei Navy, grassroots leaders, companies and schools such as

In total, 2,970kg of trash was collected in the three districts,
with 1001kg from Telisai and Danau beaches; 569kg and 641.3kg
from Muara and Meragang beaches respectively while the Belait
beach and Lumut coast collected 125kg and 614.5kg respectively.

Perdana Wazir Secondary School, Cosmopolitan College ofCommerce & Technology and IBTE Sekolah Vokasional Nakhoda
Ragam (SVNR) as well as members of the public – joined
members of the organisers who included BSP Managing Director

35 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)CLEANUP HIGHLIGHTS
Hj Kamaludin Hj Bungsu, BSP’s Development Manager Jan

Hj Moksin, 19, the President of Institut Teknologi Brunei Society

Willlem Alber Van Der Lee,Managing.

Petroleum Engineer (ITB-SPE) Student Chapter, who saw andresponded to the ad of the drive on social media, said, “I justDirector of Brunei LNG, Mohamad Damit and Managing

thought this would be a good chance for us to perform community

Director of Brunei Shell Marketing Pg Shamhary PD Hj

outreach programmes…especially widening your social horizon

Mustaphaw in combing the beaches for trash.

and other perspectives in keeping your surroundings habitable.”

In a statement, the effort encourages the importance of keeping

Meanwhile, Nur Anati Ramizah, from Meragang Sixth Formbeaches clean from rubbish as well as cultivating the spirit ofCentre, on the other hand, said it was important to keep thevolunteerism and gotong-royong (mutual cooperation) among

beaches clean, especially for the image of the country. “Westaff, youth and members of the local communities.

don’t want to represent Brunei beaches as dirty,” said the 16year-old who is a member of the Eco Club of the school. Amir
Najmi added, “Now is the time to educate the public to just pickup trash on the ground and put it where it belongs.”

However, it’s not all about picking up trash as each volunteer
were given a form from the Ocean Conservancy, a non-profit
environmental advocacy group based in the US, to tally the
number, type and consistency in types of trash that they collect.
“The data collected will help determine the patterns of trashdisposal, its source, the consistency and will help in identifying theVolunteers combing Muara Beach for trash (Photo – Brunei Times)

common causes of trash disposal and address it in the future,”
said one of the volunteers from the oil and gas companies, Suriani

In an interview with The Brunei Times, Mohammad Amir Najmi

Garip.

International Coastal Cleanup Country Coordinator for Brunei Darussalam,
Alan Tan weighing trash collected by the volunteers and loading them onto a truck to be brought for recycling

Marine Litter News_ 36

RESEARCHES
11. Compare efficiency among representative policies to collect marine
debris from sea in South Korea
By Jongmyoung Lee, Chief Scientist of Korea Marine Litter Institute, OSEAN
sachfem@nate.com
Original Citation:

Hong, S., Lee, J., Kang, D. (2015). Emergy evaluation of management measures for derelict fishing gears.
Korea Ocean Science Journal, 50(3):603−613.

A research paper was recently published in Journal of Ocean

pioneer on ecosystem ecology and is useful tool to compare

Science Journal, which evaluated three policy measures targeting

different items.

floating and sunken fishing nets, ropes, and traps (mainly plastic)

The first author, Dr. Sunwook Hong says "This is the firstin South Korea: Cleanup-using-ships program (CL), buy-backevaluation of relative efficiency of governmental measures. The(BB) program, and floating reception barge (FB) program (Fig. 1).

CL and BB where the government has invested majority of

The authors compared the emergy input to collect 1 ton of DFGs

available resources required 4.4 and 3.6 times that of the FB. We

among three measures. Emergy means "the available energy of one

hope the government should significantly change towardkind previously required directly and indirectly to make a productpreventive alternatives using the result as a reference material."or service" which was defined by Howard T. Odum (1996), a\
Cleanup-using-ships (CL) (left: courtesy, KFPA), buy-back (BB) (middle: courtesy, MLTM),
and floating reception barge (FB) (right: courtesy, MLTM)

37 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)RESEARCHES
12. Is microplastic marine debris abundant where meso-plastic debris are
numerous?
By Sunwook Hong, President of OSEAN
oceanook@gmail.com
Original Citation:

Lee, J., Lee, J.S., Jang, Y.C., Hong, S.Y., Shim, W.J., Song, Y.K., Hong, S.H., Jang, M., Han, G.M., Kang, D.,
Hong, S. (2015). Distribution and size relationships of plastic marine debris on beaches in South Korea,
Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 69(3), 288–298.

Is microplastic marine debris abundant where meso-plastic debris

The abundances of large micro- (1–5 mm), meso- (5–25 mm), andare numerous? The researchers of OSEAN and KIOST answer "Yes"macroplastics (>25 mm) were 880.4, 37.7, and 1.0 particles/m2,

in the newly published research paper in the special volume ofrespectively. Styrofoam was the most abundant debris type forArchives

Toxicology.

large microplastics and mesoplastics (99.1 and 90.9 %,Enormous efforts have been taken about macro marine debris (>respectively). Fiber (including fabric) was the most abundant of25mm) in the coastal areas and oceans on earth. Researchers'

the macroplastics (54.7 %). There were no statistical differences ininterest on small-sized marine debris has boomed over the recent 5

the mean numbers and weights of plastic debris among three beachyears and their research targets have become smaller. However,groups from west, south, and east coasts. No significant differences

smaller sized debris needs more investment of money, equipments,

were detected between the abundances of beached plastics in highand labors. This paper suggests that meso-sized debris can be easily

strandline and backshore for all three size groups. Spearman’s rank

surveyed without expensive equipments or huge investment of laborcorrelation was used to determine the relationships between theand may surrogate micro-sized debris pollution.

three debris size classes. The abundance of large microplastics wasofEnvironmental

Contamination

andstrongly correlated with that of mesoplastics for most material
types, which suggests that the contamination level of large<Abstract>

microplastics can be estimated from that of mesoplastics. As
surveying of smaller particles is more labor intensive, theThe characteristics of the distribution of plastic marine debris

surveying of mesoplastics with a 5-mm sieve is an efficient andwere determined on 12 beaches in South Korea in 2013 and 2014.

useful way to determine “hot-spots” on beaches contaminated withlarge microplastics.

Marine Litter News_ 38

13. How much plastic debris ends up in the ocean every year?
By Sunwook Hong, President of OSEAN
oceanook@gmail.com
Original Citation:

Jang, Y.C., Lee, J., Hong, S., Choi, H.W., Shim, W.J., Hong, S.Y., (2015). Estimating the global inflow and stockof plastic marine debris using Material Flow Analysis: a preliminary approach. Journal of the Korean Society for
Marine Environment & Energy, 18(4), 263-273.

Researchers of OSEAN and KIOST (Korea Institute of Ocean

there has been still difficulty estimating plastic debris input

Science & Technology) published the paper to estimate the annual

quantities although a very recent research quantitatively showed

input to and the standing stock of plastic marine debris in global

mismanaged plastic waste enter the ocean. By comparison, thisocean. Although the growing concerns on plastic marine debris

research hired a very simple and transparent process and separately

have been one of the major global environmental issues, there haveestimated annual input from standing stock."been serious lack of methods and data to understand and estimate
the quantities.

The research estimated that about 4.2 million tons of plastic
debris entered the ocean in 2013 and there is a stock of 86 million

In this research, the authors calculated the potential leakage out

tons of plastic debris as of the end of 2013. Although there are lotsof plastic products into Korean seas and applied to the global scale.

of missing parts to support the numbers, it shows irreversible

The corresponding author, Dr. Jongmyoung Lee says "To dateplastic debris pollution and emphasizes stronger preventive
measures.

39 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)RESEARCHES
14. Initiation of Research Project on Environmental Risk Assessment ofMicroplastics in Korean Waters
By Won Joon Shim•Sang Hee Hong, Principle scientists, KIOST
wjshim@kiost.ac
Recommended Citation:

Won Joon Shim, Sang Hee Hong. (2015). Initiation of Research Project on Environmental Risk Assessment ofMicroplastics in Korean Waters. Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 40-41.

Marine pollution by plastic litter has been a major global

publications has increased exponentially over the past decade

environmental issue in recent decades. Global concern over the(GESAMP, 2015), more questions than answers remain. Amongproblems presented by plastic waste has grown rapidly since thethe many important topics, a key concern is determining thepresence of microscopic sized plastic particles in both coast andseriousness of the current levels of microplastic pollution in the

remote seas, as well as in organisms ranging from planktons to top

coastal and open ocean, which can be determine by assessing the

predators were revealed. The decreasing size of plastic litter in therisks to ecological and human health caused by microplastics

environment presents increasing challenges not only for organisms(Shim and Thompson, 2015).

that struggle against it, but also scientists who assess its ecologicaland the human health risk. Although a series of studies examined

Three year (2012-2014) in-house project at Korea Institute ofthe distribution, fate, ingestion, and effects of micro-plastics inOcean Science and Technology that microplastic abundances inorder to fill knowledge gaps, and the number of scientificsurface waters and sand beaches along the coast of Korea placed

Large microplastic particles of 1-5 mm in size range on a beach in Korea

Marine Litter News_ 40

in the upper margin of the levels reported worldwide (Song et al.,experts in other research institutes and universities. The project

2014; Lee et al., 2015; Kang et al., 2015). In addition, fastconsists of two major research categories of exposure analysis andfragmentation to micro-sized particles and leaching of a flame

effect analysis of microplastics. Subcategories include evaluation

retardant, hexabromocyclodecane, from expanded polystyreneof microplastic pollution in multimedia such as water, sedimentdebris, which was top ranked plastic debris item in Korea beaches,and organisms, estimation of environmental load, input pathway

were revealed (Shim et al., 2014; Al-Oldaini et al., 2015). Further

and transportation route, weathering and fragmentation process

research was required for the South Korean government to get

and biological effects including associated chemicals. Not only thebetter understanding of nationwide microplastic pollution status

scientific findings and monitoring data in the project, but also

and its environmental consequences in coastal waters of Korea.

novel scientific results and data (i.e. fate and toxic effects ofTherefore, a new research project entitled, “Environmental Risk

microplastics) from the various on-going scientific researches in

Assessment of Microplastics in Korean Coastal Waters” wasthe world will be integrated into characterizing the environmental

initiated in May, 2015. Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of Korea

risks of microplastics. Although the main goal of the project is theplans to input over five million dollars of research grant over theassessment of environmental risk of microplastics in Korean

next six years. Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology

waters using localized exposure data, the result can also help

leads the project in collaboration withfurther the understanding of the environmental risk posed by
microplastics on a global scale.

Al-Odaini NA, Shim WJ, Han GM, Jang M, Hong SH (2015) Enrichment of hexabromocyclododecanes in coastal sediments nearaquaculture areas and a wastewater treatment plant in a semi-enclosed bay in South Korea. Science of the Total Environment 505:
290-298.
GESAMP (2015) Sources, fate and effects of microplastics in the marine environment: a global assessment. Kershaw PJ (ed). Rep StudGESAMP No. 90, 96 pp.
Kang J-H, Kwon OY, Lee K-W, Song YK, Shim WJ (2015) Marine neustonic microplastics around the southeastern coast of Korea. Marine
Pollution Bulletin 96: 304-312.
Lee J, Lee JS, Jang YC, Hong SY, Shim WJ, Song YK, Hong SH, Jang M, Han GM, Kang D, Hong S (2015) Distribution and size
relationships of plastic marine debris on beaches in South Korea. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 69: 288298.
Shim, WJ, Song, YK, Hong, SH, Jang, M, Han GM (2014). Producing fragmented micro- and nano-sized expanded polystyrene particles
with an accelerated mechanical abrasion experiment. May 2014, SETAC Annual Meeting, Basel, Switzerland.
Shim WJ, Thompson RC (2015) Microplastic in the ocean. Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 69: 265–268.
Song YK, Hong SH, Jang M, Kang J-H, Kwon OY, Han GM, Shim WJ (2014) Large accumulation of micro-sized synthetic polymer
particles in the sea surface microlayer. Environmental Science and Technology 48: 9014-9021.

41 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)Guidelines for Authors
Dear authors of ‘Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter,’Thank you for preparing your valuable manuscript for our journal. We welcome articles regarding researches, education, policies, andany other activities on marine litter issues from the globe. To make your article more easily understandable to readers around theworld, please pay attention to the following guidelines.
1. Composition of Articles(1) Title-Please make it concise and understandable.
-Including the name of the relevant country is recommended.
(2) Name of the author-The author should be natural persons even when writing articles representing organizations.
-Name of organization, author’s position, and email address should be included(3) Figure, Map, or Table-Figures, maps, or tables are recommended to be included in articles.
-Especially maps showing the geographical context of the article is strongly recommended.
-Each figure, map, and table should have captions explaining the figures, maps, and tables.
(4) References-Referencing other texts for explaining the situation is recommended.
-All the lists of documents referenced needs to be included.
2. Submission, Acceptance, and Edition-Anybody from around the world can submit the articles via email(loveseakorea@empas.com).
-As the journal is published at the end of May and November, draft articles need to be submitted by the end of April and October.
-All the articles which have basic quality will be accepted.
-The editor may ask some revision of the draft to make the article more easily understandable to readers.
3. Publication fee-There is no publication fee to be paid by authors to us or by us to authors.

Thank you for your cooperation,
Sunwook Hong, the editor.

Marine Litter News_ 42

What is East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter?
East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter is a network
established in 2009, made of NGO groups dedicated toprotection of marine environment from marine litter in east
Asia countries: Japan, South Korea, mainland China andTaiwan, Bangladeshi, Philippines as of 2015.

an ‘East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter’ through which

To the readers,

relevant NGOs and organizations in the East Asia could shareotherexperiences and information and work together on the marine

environmentally, geographically, historically, or culturally

debris problems. OSEAN and JEAN have reached a consensus

through shared regional seas. The East Asian region is one of theto launch the forum and publish biannual newsletters. So wemost dynamic economic centers with some of the busiest

have launched the East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litter andshipping lanes in the world. With the spread of mass production

we are delivering marine debris news from member countries via

and consumption over the last decades came the huge increase ine-mail to people who are concerned with this problem on local,

solid waste generation. There are, however, not enough waste

national, and regional levels. In late 2012 now, we have four

treatment facilities and management measures, which makes themembers above. We hope that the forum could provide a venue

region vulnerable to marine debris pollution.

for all of us to share our vision, experiences, and creative

East

Asian

countries

areconnected

to

each

actions.
Entering the seas in large amounts, floating debris has becomea source of concerns and conflicts among some neighboring

This is the first effort to link the East Asian people beyond

countries. This transboundary environmental problem requires

geographical and language barriers to a common goal ofconcerted efforts of all the relevant stakeholders beyond sectoral

protecting our seas from marine debris pollution. NGOs andand political boundaries. In this regard, OSEAN (Our Sea oforganizations that have interests and passion to make our seas

East Asia Network) and JEAN (Japan Environmental Action

clean and healthy are more than welcome to join us. For more

Network), the marine debris NGOs in Korea and Japan, haveinformation, you can contact us at loveseakorea@empas.com.

shared a vision in which people in the East Asia could act

Please let us know if you have any problem in receiving thetogether as one community in protecting our precious marine

newsletter. These articles are also available online at

ecosystems. We believe that NGOs in the East Asian countries

http://cafe.naver.com/osean.

have an important role in sharing experiences and acting
together to address the marine debris issue in the region from theSecretariat,

bottom up.

Sunwook Hong (OSEAN) and Kojima Azusa (JEAN)
The city governments of Shimonoseki and Nagato, and JEAN
co-organized‘2009

MarineLitterSummit-Shimonoseki•Nagato Meeting’ on October 16-18, 2009, in
Shimonoseki, Japan. OSEAN suggested in the meeting to start
43 _Dec.2015.Vol.6(2)Recommended citation for the whole volume:
Hong, Sunwook. (ed.) (2015). Marine Litter News, Vol. 6(2): 44pp, East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter, Tongyeong,
South Korea.

Contacts
Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN)
202, Mansion SOPHIA,
3-4-12, Minami-Cho, Kokubunji-Shi, Tokyo, Japan
URL http://www.jean.jp
E-mail: Cleanup@jean.jp
TEL +81-42-322-0712
FAX +81-42-324-8252

Our Sea of East Asia Network (OSEAN)
717, Leadersvill, 23-96, Jukrim 4ro, Tongyeong, Gyeongnam, 650-826, South Korea
URL http://cafe.naver.com/osean
E-mail: loveseakorea@empas.com
TEL +82-55-649-5224
FAX +82-303-0001-4478

Taiwan Ocean Cleanup Alliance (TOCA)
97057, No.87, Fuyang Rd., Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan
URL http:// www.icctaiwan.org.tw
E-mail: kuroshio@seed.net.tw
TEL +886-3-857-8148
FAX +886-3-857-8948

Shanghai Rendu Ocean NPO Development Center
Room 222, Building C, No.633, Eshan Rd, Shanghai, China, Zip Code 200127
URL http://www.jintan.org
E-mail: liuyonglun@163.com
TEL +86-21-61762119

Kewkradong Bangladesh
C4 Arambag Eastern Housing, Mirpur-7, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh
E-mail: Muntasir@gmail.com
TEL +88 01911 310 275

ICC Philippines
Units 8 & 9, CCP Bay Terminal, CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, Philippines,
Mobile: +63917.372.87.02
E-mail: iccphilippines@gmail.com;
URL http://sites.google.com/site/iccphilippines/home

Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litteris published two times a year by civil groups in Asian countries.

Postal Address: 717, 23-96, Jukrim 4ro, Gwangdo, Tongyeong, Gyeongmam, 53013, South Korea
E-mail: loveseakorea@empas.com
WeNews_truly44thank Young Jun Andrew Kim for English proofreading of this issue.
Marine※Litter