Journal of Coastal Zone Management

Classification and quantification of marine debris from voluntary beach clean-up program at Pantai Peranginan Kelulut, Marang, Terengganu, Malaysia

3^rd International Conference on Coastal Zones and Oceanography

May 18-19, 2018 Singapore

Izan Jaafar, Nazaitulshila Rasit and Mohd Nizam Lani

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Coast Zone Manag

Abstract:

The promotion of East Coast States in Malaysia wealth with their beautiful beaches has increased the number of visitors at the vicinity of beach area. However, low awareness on the importance of beach protection from pollution and environmental awareness on protecting marine habitat, marine debris is still the norm. A voluntary beach clean-up program participated with more than 1000 people was conducted at Pantai Peranginan Kelulut Marang, Terengganu. The collection and quantification of marine debris for plastics, paper, glass, tin/aluminium, polystyrene and others (diapers, fishing equipment, etc.) was carried out in a brief 20 minutes along 1.8 km distance area which was divided into three main areas namely beach, park and restaurants. The program involved 41 undergraduates and post graduate students of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu as committee and facilitators. The total of massive 626 kg marine debris was collected. The classification demonstrated that diapers, sandals, beach balls, fishing equipments, etc. were the most abundant item, which were 315 kg represented 50% of total marine debris collected, the rest were plastic=132 kg (21%), glass=79 kg (13%), papers=42 kg (7%), polystyrene=34 kg (6%), Tin/Aluminium=24 kg (3%), respectively. Due to the high number of marine debris collected in that very short time, indicated that environmental awareness towards marine protection is still low, hence more such voluntary beach clean-up program are highly needed to increase the environmental education among public and surrounding communities thus beach pollution can be lessen. izanjaafara@umt.edu.my