PANAJI
Goa’s beaches are, on average, the dirtiest among beaches across the country a survey conducted by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin has revealed with Goa reporting a high of 205.75 grams of beach litter per square meter of beach sand.
Goa’s figures stand at more than four times the national average at 45.86 g/m2 of sandy beach while Goa also tops the per capita of beach with 40.5 kg of beach litter per head. Karnataka comes a distant second with just 5.97 kg of beach debris per head.
The study, which is based on a one-time observation, was conducted between October 2013 and January 2014 with the results being published in a reputed science journal Marine Biological Association of India recently.
According to the study, Goa’s beach litter included around 12% plastics but the largest chunk -- 36.5 per cent -- of beach litter came from Nylon ropes, fishnet pieces and lines while a close second -- 32.87 per cent was glass including bottles and electric bulbs.
The rest of the litter was made of thermocol, insulation material, styrofoam synthetic slippers footwear. Goa, unlike some other states surveyed, did not report any ‘e-waste’ on the beaches.
Goa is one of the few states that is spending public funds under a specially devised contracts to keep its beaches clean in view of the tourism potential the beaches hold.
Karnataka coast registered second highest mean quantity (178.44 g/m2) while Maharashtra and Kerala registered a near-equal mean of 3.8 g/m2. Archipelagic coasts of Andamans, as well as the Lakshadweep, recorded values higher than Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal Coastal litter impacts in multiple ways, the most importantly they degrade the quality and health of our oceans, damage coastal and marine habitats and harm marine biota.
For the study, the team of researchers chose sandy and open beaches with clear access to the sea and those protected with seawalls and groins and blocked by jetties, breakwaters etc. were avoided. Beach litter samples were sampled using a rope quadrate of 10m x 10m operated in triplicate from each station with 100 m interval.
The researchers chose five beaches in Goa.
Out of the total 254 beaches surveyed as part of the study, 51 beaches were graded as very clean, 122 beaches were graded clean. 17 Extremely clean beaches were found in Kerala, Maharashtra (12), Tamil Nadu (2), Andhra Pradesh (4), Odisha (7) and West Bengal (3).
