Marine Trash Monitoring Program on Beaches — 2020

reducing pollution of the marine environment by macro and micro-junk is one of the major environmental challenges facing society today. According to the draft Strategy 2020-2030 North-East Atlantic (NEAE), the OSPAR Convention aims to significantly reduce marine litter to levels that do not cause adverse impacts. This level, called “Good Environmental Status” (GES)/Good Environmental Status (BEA), is also the objective set by the European Union (EU) in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EMFD, 2008/56/EC). The Marine Waste Monitoring Program on beaches in mainland Portugal in 2020 included the 15 beaches already monitored in the year 2019. As in other activities, this programme has also been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the restrictions it was possible to carry out on most beaches at least 3 campaigns with a total of 46 campaigns. In the Autonomous Region of the Azores, the monitoring programme on the 6 beaches was also continued.