Guidance on the monitoring of marine litter in European seas : an update to improve the harmonised monitoring of marine litter under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive

The new EU MSFD Guidance on Monitoring Marine Litter in the European Seas provides protocols for monitoring of marine litter based on research developments and Member States efforts to increase the comparability of data and assessments. This update, from the previous version published 2013, includes methodological recommendations, and advice on how to sample, analyse, and record marine litter to support Member States in designing and implementing monitoring programmes to understand the impact of marine litter in the marine environment. The MSFD Guidance covers different environmental compartments with detailed chapters on monitoring marine macro and microlitter on the coastlines, seafloor, and the surface of water; mesolitter on beaches, as well as litter ingested by biota and entanglement with litter. The Guidance supports Member States to implement the MSFD in relation to Descriptor 10: Marine Litter. However, this Guidance is also relevant for other international organisations with responsibilities for managing marine litter, contributing to the generation of consistent and compatible data to address the issues of marine litter in an international context.