Marine debris on Cassino Beach, Brazil. 2015 to 2020

This dataset
contains 1 csv file (Projeto_LixoMarinho_macrolitter.xlsx), divided in 3
sheets. One sheet is the core file, which contains information about station
label (S1, S2, S3 and S4), data of collection, GPS coordinates in decimal
degrees, strata (dune, water and middle), sampling protocol, effort and sampled
area. One sheet contains environmental data, as wind direction and intensity
and beach width collected during the sampling. One sheet contains marine litter
data as material, type, source, colour, degree of hardness, size and weight. A “parameters
information” text file contains description and/or measured unit of columns
content for the three csv files.

The United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) defines marine litter as
'any persistent, manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed
of or abandoned in the marine and coastal
environment'. Marine litter were collected in Cassino beach in Rio
Grande municipality, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil in four points (S1, S2, S3, S4).
S4 started to be sampled in May 2016. Some months was not possible to sample S4
due meteorological conditions that difficulted access to this point. Sampling
were done monthly from 2015 (December), 2016 (January – December, except
September), 2018 (December) and 2019 (January-March). Items were removed from dune
base and wrack line strata in a 200 m2 transects triplicate. In
middle strata area vary according beach width and only started to be sampled in
January 2017.

The items were
divided in 8 material-categories (Fabric, Glass, Metal, Other, Paper, Plastic,
Rubber and Wood), 8 sources-categories (Domestic, Domestic / Tourism, Fishery,
International, Religious, Tourism, Undetermined and Vessel) and 119 types
(specific items).

Type, material and
source list was based in UNEP/IOC Guidelines on Survey and Monitoring of Marine
Litter guide, 2009 with the addition of region-specific items.

All data were
collected by Projeto Lixo Marinho by Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG).
GPS positions were taken for each sampling site. All items were removed from
the beach, cleaned and dried in laboratory, after taking measures all items
were properly disposed of and recycled (where possible).