A study of marine debris on beach of Bidong Island, Terengganu

Abstract

The analysis of marine debris composition and abundance using strandline method was conducted on three beaches of Bidong Island. The analysis was conducted twice which th was from 25 th till 2g of March 2010 for the first time and from 6 th th till g August 2010 for the second time. The sampling area is located in the northeast of Kuala Terengganu city and Merang town with 5 ° 37'N 103 ° 04'E off the coast of Terengganu in the South China Sea. The beach profile for the beach was recorded in order to see if there is a significant effect of beach slope on the debris accumulation. The marine debris composition analysis was recorded in both weight and item percentage abundance. The total weight of marine debris collected from the both sampling was 103.64 kg with 38.8% of it was plastic, 13.7% of glass, 5.8% of styrofoam, 5.5% of rubber and the rest of it is from others categories (36.2%). It is observable that most of the debris was accumulated at the Strandline 1 near the vegetation line where 63.5% of the debris collected from this strand line. In the mean time, most of the weight debris item such as metal, glass, asbestos and fabric tends to accumulate at the Strandline 3 near the water's edge. The variation of marine debris composition and percentage abundance is related to human's activity and behavior.