Monitoring of seafloor litter on the Dutch continental shelf : international bottom trawl survey 2023, Dutch beam trawl survey 2022

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires EU Member States to develop programmes of measures that aim to achieve or maintain Good Environmental Status (GES) in European seas. In order to be able to evaluate the quality status of marine waters on a regular basis and the effects of the measures taken, monitoring programs for MSFD descriptors and indicators have been established by the Member States. The Dutch monitoring program for Marine Litter (Descriptor 10) includes the collection of data on the presence, abundance and distribution of macro litter on the seafloor.

The oceans are of substantial socio-economic importance, providing employement, food and recreation for much of the world's population.

This report describes the methods used an presents and discusses the data collected in 2022-2023 for the Dutch part of the monitoring of litter deposited on the seafloor.