title: Floating plastic debris in the Central and Western Mediterranean Sea.
abstract: In two sea voyages throughout the Mediterranean (2011 and 2013) that repeated the historical travels of Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria (1847-1915), 71 samples of floating plastic debris were obtained with a Manta trawl. Floating plastic was observed in all the sampled sites, with an average weight concentration of 579.3 g dw km(-2) (maximum value of 9298.2 g dw km(-2)) and an average particle concentration of 147,500 items km(-2) (the maximum concentration was 1,164,403 items km(-2)). The plastic size distribution showed microplastics (<5 mm) in all the samples. The most abundant particles had a surface area of approximately 1 mm(2) (the mesh size was 333 μm). The general estimate obtained was a total value of 1455 tons dw of floating plastic in the entire Mediterranean region, with various potential spatial accumulation areas.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Carretera d'Accés a la Cala St. Francesc, 14, 17300 Blanes-Girona, Spain. Electronic address: luisf.ruizorejon@ceab.csic.es.
authors.forename: Luis F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Ruiz-Orejón
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Estudis Avançats de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Carretera d'Accés a la Cala St. Francesc, 14, 17300 Blanes-Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sardá
authors.affiliation: ESADE Business School, Edifici 1. Universitat Ramon Llull, Av. Pedralbes, 60-62, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ramis-Pujol
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D010969:Plastics / Q000032:analysis*; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics; D014866:Waste Products; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical
keywords: Debris; Mediterranean sea; Monitoring; Plastics; Pollution monitoring; Size