2005 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Effect of plastic marine debris upon coastal fisheries
| Project/Area Number |
15580167
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
General fisheries
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| Research Institution | Kagoshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
FUJIEDA Shigeru Kagoshima University, Faculty of Fisheries, Associate Professor, 水産学部, 助教授 (20244270)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KURASHIGE Kayo Kagoshima Women's Junior College, Associate Professor, 児童教育学科, 助教授 (40290663)
OHTOMI Jun Kagoshima University, Faculty of Fisheries, Associate Professor, 水産学部, 助教授 (10253915)
HIDAKA Masayasu Kagoshima University, Faculty of Fisheries, Assistant Professor, 水産学部, 講師 (20208771)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2005
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| Keywords | Marine debris / Marine pollution / Plastic / Fragment |
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| Research Abstract |
Recently, concerns have arisen regarding the impact of plastic marine debris on fishery activities. This study investigated several instances of the effect of marine debris upon coastal fisheries.
Fishing equipment, such as set and trawl nets, net-cages used for marine culture and pole-and-line fishing, can become seriously damaged by large items of marine debris such as ropes, nets and logs. In addition, collisions between fishing boats and large debris occur frequently. For fishermen, the intake of plastic sheeting with cooling water by their boats is of particular concern as this can result in boats becoming inoperable at sea, thus threatening the lives of fishermen and their property.
Similarly, expanded polystyrene floats are commonly used for the production of rafts for oyster farming, net-cage rafts for marine culture, and for the fenders of boats in coastal areas. If the floats are not well maintained and are left exposed on the seashore, they break up into fragments and become widely scattered on beaches after drifting at sea. The same is true for other artifacts made of hard plastics and plastic fibers and sheets that are regularly found in harvested seaweed and fine-meshed nets used to catch small fish. These small fragments must be removed by hand in the plants where the food is processed as failure to do so would result the contamination of marine food products with these fragments. This not only decreases the commercial value of marine food products, but also increases production costs. Left unchecked, food contamination by marine debris is likely to have an indirect, sustained and progressively negative impact on coastal fisheries. Such a situation is also likely to result in eroding the trust of consumers in marine products and coastal fishing.
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