Assessment of seabed litter at Concepción Seamount (Canary island) using a remotely operated towed vehicle

The seafloor is recognised as a major sink for marine litter. However, studies conducted in this compartment addressing marine litter densities and its interactions with fauna are scarce, mainly due to sampling constraints. In this paper, we assess marine litter density, composition and interactions with marine communities and evaluate its relationship with fishing activities at the "Banco de la Concepción" seamount (Canary Islands, Spain). We took advantage of underwater video records taken with a Remotely Operated Towed Vehicle in the framework of the LIFE IP INTEMARES project. A total of 56 video transects were analysed covering about 9 km with 19 h of video recording. Transects were categorised as high, low, and null fishing effort based on the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) positional data registered between 2009 and 2017. Litter items were recorded in 70% of the transects with a mean density of 2122 (±2464) items km-2. There were significant differences in litter densities over the three levels of fishing pressure, with a density decrease from stations of high to stations of null fishing pressure. Regarding categories, plastic was by far the most abundant category found (83.1%), mainly consisting of fishing lines, both monofilaments and entangled longlines. The study of the interactions of marine litter with fauna showed that less than 20% of the items presented an interaction with benthic organisms either by causing or not a visible impact. The sponge Asconema setubalense accounted for more than half (57.4%) of all interactions, but only 5% of all A. setubalense specimens showed physical damage.

It receives financial support from the European Union's LIFE program (LIFE15 IPE ES 012, funding source of E.L.G.’s work). We are grateful to Ana Virginia Filgueiras Rodal for valuable comments on the manuscript. The work of J.G. was funded by FreeLitter At Project: “Advancing towards litter-free Atlantic coastal communities by preventing and reducing macro and micro litter” (EAPA_0009/2022) funded by the INTERREG Atlantic Area Programme (2021–2027). M.I. work was funded by the 6-ESMARES2-C8 project, M.G.P. and L.M.G. by 22-ESMARES2-C10CAN and J.F. by 24-ESMARES2-TEPESCO, which are supported by the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.

Peer reviewed