title: A baseline assessment of beach debris and tar contamination in Bonaire, Southeastern Caribbean.
abstract: Data on beach debris and tar contamination is provided for 21 natural beach sites in Bonaire, Southeastern Caribbean. Transects amounting to a combined length of 991 m were sampled March-May 2011 and a total of 8960 debris items were collected. Highest debris and tar contamination were found on the beaches of the windward east-coast of the island where geometric mean debris concentrations (± approx. 70% confidence limits) were 115±58 items m(-1) and 3408±1704 g m(-1) of beach front. These levels are high compared to data collected almost 20 years earlier on the nearby island of Curaçao. Tar contamination levels averaged 223 g m(-1) on windward beaches. Contamination levels for leeward west-coast beaches were generally two orders of magnitude less than windward beaches.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Research and Ecosystem Studies, Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 57,1780AB Den Helder, The Netherlands. dolfi.debrot@wur.nl
authors.forename: Adolphe O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Debrot
authors.forename: Jimmy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Rijn
authors.forename: Patrick S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Bron
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de León
mesh_terms: D001493:Bathing Beaches / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017691:Caribbean Region; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D013638:Tars / Q000032:analysis*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D013638:Tars; D014866:Waste Products; D014873:Water Pollutants