Water is one of the most crucial substances for life. In order to maintain their public health, each and every country has defined standards of drinking water quality, beyond which the water is considered harmful for human health. The current study compares physical, chemical, and biological standards of drinking water quality for the USA, EU, Japan, India, and Bangladesh, considering 4 physical parameters (namely, color, odor, taste, and turbidity), 35 chemical parameters (such as Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Phosphate (PO43-), Sodium (Na), Phenolic compounds, Nitrite (NO2-), Arsenic (As), Aluminum (Al), etc.) and 2 biological parameters (i.e., Coliform (Fecal) and Coliform (Total)). The data has been collected from several secondary sources and since processes of data collection for water quality differ from one another, this aspect has been ignored. No variation has been found in biological water quality standards along with physical quality standards of the considered regions. In order to find out the differences in chemical parameters, standard ANOVA and pair-wise F-test have been conducted. There was no disparity among chemical parameters in ANOVA test. Moreover, thanks to the few excessive values of the standards (as in case of Bangladesh), the COD value is 4 mg/L, whereas in other countries this parameter is much less. However, the chemical parameters of water quality standards in Bangladesh vary significantly from other countries. Besides, there has been no variation among the standards of other countries, even though they are located in different continents. Most interestingly, despite being neighbors, Bangladesh and India differ significantly in this regard.

Eight touristic beaches along the north coast of Santa Catarina Island, Brazil were assessed to determine litter influence on scenic quality. The application of the Coastal Scenic Evaluation System (CSES) categorized these beaches into four of the five available classes. Six of the investigated beaches belong to Class III (n = 3) and V (n = 3), while two beaches correspond to Class II and Class IV. Class I beaches were not found. A total amount of 4291 litter items weighing 29 kg were collected with average abundances of 0.29 items m2. Beach user's habits as well bad management practices along the adjoining river basins play an essential role on litter source, and are directly responsible for the decline of scenic quality of Santa Catarina Island Beaches. In fact, litter has a direct relation with the low scenic scores determined in the surveyed beaches.

Understanding population dynamics of established invasive species is important for designing effective management measures and predicting factors such as invasiveness and ecological impact. The kelp Undaria pinnatifida has spread to most temperate regions of the world, however a basic understanding of population dynamics is lacking for many regions. Here, Undaria was monitored for 2 years, at 9 sites, across 3 habitats to investigate habitat-related variation in population structure, reproductive capacity and morphology. Populations on marina pontoons were distinct from those in reef habitats, with extended recruitment periods and higher abundance, biomass, maturation rates and fecundity; potentially driven by lower inter-specific and higher intra-specific competition within marinas. This suggests that artificial habitats are likely to facilitate the spread, proliferation and reproductive fitness of Undaria across its non-native range. More broadly, generalising population dynamics of invasive species across habitat types is problematic, thus adding high complexity to management options.

Tropical sea cucumber fisheries are generally traditional, small-scale, multispecies and poorly managed. Many recent studies have improved our knowledge on the biology and ecology of the commercially important species; the main results are analysed and the remaining gaps discussed. The fisheries and the patterns of trade changes during the last decade are presented from the data available and confirm overexploitation in the traditional Indian Ocean and West Pacific countries and territories. Several Latino-American countries now have active fisheries. Despite the management and conservation issues which have recently received more attention at international, regional and national levels, more measures are still needed at all these levels, to ensure sustainable exploitations of these resources.

Increasing accessibility of coral reefs from the latter third of the 20th century led quickly to recognition of the vulnerability of coral reef communities to a combination of direct and indirect human impacts. Coral reefs are confronted by the stark threats of climate and ocean changes from the increasing number, intensity and forms of human use impacting global and marine systems. Management, particularly of accessible coral reefs, occurs in the context of multiple scale transboundary water column linkages of lifecycle processes and increasing human use of coastal and marine space. Four decades of experience have demonstrated the combined importance of biophysical and socio-economic sciences and sharing knowledge with communities for developing implementing effective management. In the face of environmental and socio-economic change the challenge for science and management is to develop knowledge and management responses that can better understand and increase resilience to improve he outlook for coral reef communities.

137 coastal sites located along the Caribbean coast of Colombia were surveyed to determine scenic quality, litter content, and typology. Scenic evaluation categorized sites into five classes. 26 appeared in Class I; 18 in Class II; 19 in Class III; 30 in class IV; and 44 in Class V. Beach type was categorized into urban (31), resort (18), rural (46), village (32) and remote (10). Litter gave 17 sites an “A” grade (excellent); 34 sites a “B” grade; 53 sites a “C” grade and 33 locations a “D” grade (poor). Almost all sites surveyed have a low scenic quality and also significant litter content. Currently, litter directly produces aesthetic problems along the study area, and improvements are necessary to favor coastal scenic quality. Stakeholders should make a significant effort to improve the scenic human parameters along the study area, litter removal and prevention being the most important.

A monitoring program was carried out in autumn 2015 along the Mediterranean coast of Morocco, at sites including urban, village and remote/rural beaches. Artificial Polymer Materials (APM) represented 70.64% of all collected items and included plastic (16 categories), foamed plastic (3) and other APM materials (2). Plastic items represented the dominant debris with 5356 items, i.e. 94.53% of all APM debris, foamed plastics presented 191 items (i.e. 3.37%) and other APM summed 119 items, i.e. 2.1% of all APM. Urban areas presented 49.63% of all APM recollected items with cigarette butts representing 32% of total APM items. Village areas presented 40.43% of total APM recollected items with cigarette butts representing 14.1%. Remote and rural beaches recorded 9.94% of total APM items and no cigarette butts were observed. Despite the efforts of local administrations, which introduced litter bins and enforced mechanical and manual cleaning operations, debris were essentially related to beachgoers.