Poster abstracts and manuscripts from the Third International ...

Alarcon Daowz, Gildardo
39
SESSION III POSTERS
Sources of Marine Debris: Vessels
Mexican Navy Participation in Activities for the Protection of
the Marine Environment: Marine Debris Cleaning Operations
Armada de Mexico, Coyoacan, Mexico
Mexican Navy Districts perform cleaning operations on beaches, in
harbours, coastal lagoons and bays and enforce governmental
policies for the protection of the marine environment.- These
activities are carried out through special units localized in
every port called "Unidades de Protection al Medio Ambiente
Marino" (Marine Environment Protection Units).
The marine debris collection is carried out in collaboration with
other federal agencies and with public participation. This is
realized at two different stages: the first is through
continuous but short range operations (usually twice a week in a
reduced number of beaches or waterfront of some piers), performed
by Navy personnel. The second is a larger scale operation
conducted on a monthly basis and during special celebrations such
as the International Earth Day, the World Environment Day, etc.,
and is performed by Navy personnel, Navy service conscripts and
the general public, working in more extensive areas of beaches
and waterfronts.
Each month, every Navy District writes a report of these
activities, in which is included the types and amount of debris,
spatial distribution and some other useful information. At the
offices of the Director for the Protection of the Marine
Environment, this information is received and analyzed to
determine patterns and important sources of pollutants.
In this poster, results from 1993 are displayed, showing
differences among coasts in which main activities range from
self-consumption fisheries to tourism and the oil industry.
Tourism and fisheries seem to be the activities related to the
largest amounts of marine debris produced. However, further
information is required in order to know the contribution of
domestic and municipal wastes. With this purpose in mind,
Mexican Navy authorities have recently introduced some criteria
to classify the debris collected, with the aim of obtaining
higher quality data, thus enabling identification of different
sources of coastal and marine debris.
Further discussion is focused on the strategy to improve the
cleaning operations and on the alternatives for reducing the
amount of debris released to the marine environment.