22 October 2024
Alessandra Giorgetti, head of the NODC managed by OGS, represented EMODnet Chemistry at the International Workshop on Monitoring, Assessment and Prevention of Marine Litter on the seafloor, which took place from 9 to 11 October in Shanghai, China. The invitation-only event was organised by East China Normal University and the Integrated Marine Debris Observing System (IMDOS). The EU Joint Research Council, the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea and 21 other international organisations, research institutes and projects in China, Japan and Europe co-organised and supported the event.
Marine litter is a topical issue. In order to take the best measures to curb the impact of this widespread source of pollution on the Earth's ecosystems, policy makers are calling on the scientific community to understand the existing distribution and amount of plastic in the ocean and its trends over the years. The harmonisation of monitoring and observation methods and the global integration of the collected data is an important first step towards this goal. Seafloor litter is one of the components that currently requires the most effort, both in terms of monitoring and data management.
The aim of the workshop was to discuss the scientific and technical basis for coordinating, standardising and harmonising the monitoring of seafloor litter and the management of the associated data at a global level. During the workshop it was emphasised that EMODnet could play an important role in the definition and development of the global database.
With her presentation Giorgetti contributed to the session that focused on data collection and systems, infrastructure, harmonisation and best practises. She began with an overview of EMODnet history and portfolio of data, products and services available on its Portal. She then gave an insight into the system developed over the years to collect, preserve marine litter data and make them accessible via various services. In particular, she explained that EMODnet Chemistry has been working with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive Technical Group on Marine Litter (MSFD TGML) and other key stakeholders in the EU since 2017 to harmonise, standardise and control the management of different types of marine litter data. This has led to the development of the first pan-European marine litter database, which supports the establishment of European baseline and threshold values for the MSFD. Giorgetti also talked about the EMODnet PArtnership for China and Europe & the China-EU Marine Data Network Partnership (CEMDnet) project of the National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS) of China. This project ran from 2020 to 2022 to connect people and organisations, promote cooperation, develop and combine data and create marine knowledge.
“The NODC maintain and developes the EMODnet centralised databases of macro-litter data from beaches and the seafloor.” Said Giorgetti and concluded stating “EMODnet is also the gateway to a distributed database of marine surface and sediment micro-litter. Finally, the partnership is working with the Technical Group on Marine litter of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive to structure the database for seafloor litter data from images and videos.”
