Items Identified Photo Guide

For example, if a water bottle is found together with take-away containers and sunscreen on a popular beach it likely originates from people enjoying the beach. If the bottle is found together with fish boxes, floats and fishing nets, it is more likely that it originates from a fishing vessel.

In combination with knowledge of the location of the beach that the litter was sampled from and the activities likely affecting this location, documenting the litter context provides a useful frame of reference for interpreting your data.

Examples of items identified in form-2 are

Plastic shopping bags are also interesting to document specifically as they have been in focus for policy making due to their contribution to plastic pollution (Xanthos and Walker 2017) . VIDEO and/or PHOTO examples

'Rope cut-offs', pieces of rope with clear signs of being cut rather than frayed from normal wear and tear. This indicates that there is a high probability that they were purposefully disposed of at sea. VIDEO and/or PHOTO examples

Figure 1. Cut off under 1 cm

Dolly ropes are used to protect bottom trawl nets from being damaged from wear and tear, but also contribute significantly to plastic pollution. There have been initiatives to find alternatives to the use of dolly ropes (OSPAR 2020 ). VIDEO and/or PHOTO examples

Figure 2. Dolly rope

Parts of conveyor belts, packaging tube rolls, bundles of strapping band and blue industrial plastic sheeting is being likely discarded from industrial freezer trawlers that process fish onboard the vessels. The items are used under deck and are unlikely to be lost overboard accidently. VIDEO and/or PHOTO examples


Figure 3. Conveyor belt
Figure 4. Packaging tube roles
Figure 5. Strapping bands
Figure 6. Blue industrial plastic sheetingt
Other types of litter that are often found in some parts of the Arctic are:

Figure 7. Caps, lids, corks
Figure 8. Cleaners
Figure 9. Cosmetics bottles and containers
Figure 10. Cotton bud sticks
Figure 11. Cisps, sweets packets
Figure 12. Conveyor belt
Figure 13. Drinks
Figure 14. Filter media (and cotton bud sticks)
Figure 15. Fish boxes
Figure 16. Floats
Figure 17. Food containers
Figure 18. Injection gun containers
Figure 19. Net cut-off
Figure 20. Net cut-off
Figure 21. Nurdles
Figure 22. Plastic detonation cords
Figure 23. Plastic sheeting and industrial packaging
Figure 24. Shotgun cartridges
Figure 25. Single use cups
Figure 26. Snuff boxes
Figure 27. Straws (single use straws)
Figure 28. Straws (single use straws)
Figure 29. Straws (single use straws)

Examples of how to organise litter into categories:

Figure 30. Conveyor belt
Figure 31. Conveyor belt
Figure 32. Conveyor belt
Figure 33. Conveyor belt
Figure 34. Conveyor belt
Figure 35. Conveyor belt
To be Noted..
Deep Dive is using the citizen science protocol of Ocean Conservancy as a starting point to provide context around litter. Central items from the OSPAR protocol (OSPAR 2010), as well as items identified as important through deep dive analysis in the Arctic, are added to this.