Proper monitoring of our coasts and seas is an important contribution to keeping them litter-free. Therefore, MIO-ECSDE produced a video tutorial on how to monitor marine litter on beaches and a self-paced distance learning module on how to monitor marine litter on beaches, the sea surface and the seafloor. Both were developed within the IPA-Adriatic funded DeFishGear project.

The two learning tools were designed to be comprehensive enough yet not time demanding so that any interested busy practitioner, administrator, professional, student or NGO staff member can enhance her/his skills on how to design and implement marine litter monitoring activities. Furthermore, they provide the necessary technical and scientific background to support the design and implementation of marine litter monitoring programmes within the framework of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the UNEP/MAP Regional Plan for Marine litter Management in the Mediterranean.

The methodologies showcased in both tools have been pilot tested by the DeFishGear project and have been developed based on the ‘Guidance Document on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas’ elaborated by the EU MSFD Technical Sub-Group on Marine Litter and the UNEP/MAP MEDPOL draft Monitoring Guidance Document on Ecological Objective 10: Marine Litter.