Sources of marine debris for Seychelles and other remote islands in the
western Indian Ocean
Abstract
Vast quantities of marine debris have beached at remote islands in the
western Indian Ocean such as Seychelles, but little is known about where
this debris comes from. To identify these sources and temporal patterns
in accumulation rate, we carried out global Lagrangian particle tracking
experiments incorporating surface currents, waves, and variable windage,
beaching, and sinking rates, taking into account both terrestrial
(coastal populations and rivers) and marine (fisheries and shipping)
sources of debris. Our results show that, whilst low-buoyancy
terrestrial debris may originate from the western Indian Ocean
(principally Tanzania, Comoros, and Seychelles), most terrestrial debris
beaching at remote western Indian Ocean islands drifts from the eastern
and northern Indian Ocean, primarily Indonesia and, to a lesser extent,
India and Sri Lanka. Purse-seine fragments beaching at Seychelles are
likely associated with fishing activity in the western Indian Ocean, but
longline fragments may also be swept from the southeastern Indian Ocean.
The entire of Seychelles is at very high risk from waste discarded from
shipping routes transiting the Indian Ocean, and comparison with
observations suggests that many bottles washing up on beaches may indeed
originate from these routes. Our analyses indicate that marine debris
accumulation at Seychelles (and the Outer Islands in particular) is
likely to be strongly seasonal, peaking during February-April, and this
pattern is driven by local monsoonal winds. This seasonal cycle may be
amplified during positive Indian Ocean Dipole phases and
El-Ni\~{n}o events. These results
underline the vulnerability of small island developing states to marine
plastic pollution, and are a crucial first step towards improved
management of the issue. The Lagrangian trajectories used in this study
are available for download, and our analyses can be rerun under
different parameters using the associated scripts.