Type and abundance of marine debris at selected public beaches in Sarawak, east Malaysia, during the northeast monsoon

Different forms of debris pollute the marine environment. Due to lack of knowledge and awareness among the public on the negative impacts of marine debris, coastal areas such as beaches have been polluted and contaminated with waste. Existing knowledge on marine debris in Malaysia, especially in the state of Sarawak are limited. Therefore, a study was conducted at four beaches in Sarawak to document the types and abundance of marine debris. Marine debris items were collected and categorized during beach surveys at Pandan (Lundu), Pasir Pandak (Santubong), Temasyah (Bintulu) and Tg. Lobang (Miri) in October 2012. Plastic category was the most numerous (90.70%), followed by wood, rubber, glass, metal and cloth contributing 3.53%, 2.20%, 1.78%, 1.58% and 0.21%, respectively. Pasir Pandak beach received the highest quantities of debris (1,120 items/km or 44.1 kg/km). For sources of debris, 23.99% items collected were objects that were directly associated with marine sources. Items associated with terrestrial and common sources were 11.67% and 64.34% respectively. Out of the 21 objects identified as marine source debris, 86.91% comprised of ropes, oil bottles, packaging and cigarette lighters which were present in all study sites. Five highest number of items found in all the study sites for the terrestrial source debris were wrappers, shopping bags, cardboard cartons, aluminium cans and cloths which contributed a total of 97.98%. Clear and coloured plastic bottles represented 46.15% of the total objects in the common source debris. A total of 730 item/km of debris at 42 kg/km was collected from this study. The high number of plastic-based items contributed from the terrestrial and common sources indicates that continued efforts need to be made to reduce marine debris on those beaches.