Leveraging on Citizen Science to Achieve Cleaner Beaches and Scientific Objectives in Kenya

By Eric Okuku, Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute

If you have taken a walk along a beach, you have probably come across an oddly placed piece of plastic, toothpaste tube, shoe, name it.

For many people, not much thought goes into it, then you come across another one…and another one, and many more. Such is the case in the coastal beaches of Kenya, and many beaches across the world. This is the problem of marine litter. Marine litter are ubiquitous, unquantified and uncharacterized along the Kenyan coast and therein lay our problem. Every year Kenya is estimated to consume 259,252 tonnes of plastic packaging materials alone, and only 46,988 tonnes (18%) of these are recycled and nearly 173,698 tonnes find their way into the environment or illegal dumpsites every year.

Estimation of liter quantities along the Kenyan Coast Extrapolated for the entire coastlinePoorly managed plastics make their way into gutters, storm drainage and sewage lines where they clog pipes and result in stagnation of urban runoff and sewer bursts that are a common occurrence in most major towns of Kenya. Additionally, unused or discarded plastic containers like drink bottles, buckets, and cups are breeding grounds for insects that spread diseases; choke animals and the soil surface by preventing soil aeration and killing microorganisms which support the soil in many open dumps within settlement areas in Kenya. The plastics within retain water that create filthy conditions with other organic wastes, as a result flies thrive and spread diarrheal diseases that continue to kill many in children Kenya.

As residents and marine research scientists based in Mombasa, Kenya's second largest city by population, the scourge of marine litter is quite apparent. Our team at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) is fortunate to be based adjacent to Mkomani beach, a small recreational beach near our work station, from where we get to experience first-hand the unfathomable rate of litter accumulation ashore on a daily basis…undocumented. Something had to be done. Willpower, meagre resources, and with brute hard work on our side, we set out to bridge the knowledge gap.

Litter accumulated in Mkomani BeachBracing the challenge of marine litter would amount to nothing or even fail flat without the involvement of like-minded individuals and volunteers. KMFRI Marine Debris Volunteer Program (KMDVP) was borne out of this fact, and in recognition of the valuable role citizens play exploring nature and generating scientifically acceptable data. Together with a team of volunteers and local communities we have been able to generate a wealth of data, most of it being the first of its kind in Kenya, along with the privilege of touching local resident’s hearts and changing perceptions towards marine litter.

Our studies focused on preventing and reducing the amounts of marine litter by identifying its sources, quantity, characterizing and brand auditing collected litter on adjacent beach roads, beaches and ultimately into the ocean surface and ocean floor. This has been achieved by incorporating different litter monitoring surveys targeting marine litter on the macro (>25mm) and meso scale (5-25 mm). We have conducted surveys to estimate the amount of litter residing on beaches; assessed the quantity of litter accumulating daily on the shorelines; estimated the inflow of litter from rivers to the ocean, estimated the sunken and partially exposed litter on the ocean bottom; estimated the quantity of litter on the ocean surface and conducted surveys on street adjacent to beaches to track the transition of land-based litter into the marine environment.

Local community members assisting in litter sorting and characterizationOur recent study found that up to 15 plastic items accumulate in every 1 meter of coastal beaches length every day. Plastic is the most commonly encountered litter category, in fact, we estimate that 1.6 to 12.9 million plastic items accumulate daily based on our findings extrapolated for the entire Kenyan coast. Kenyan brands contribute 88% of the traceable litter on her beaches and that over 90% of branded litter are food wrappers. Human behavior evidently contributes to a large portion of this plastics build-up. Tow net skimming on the surface of ocean found 347,337 floating plastic items per km2 constituting of both meso and macro sized fragments.

COVID-19 pandemic brought us challenges and opportunities to explore COVID-19 related wastes on beaches and adjacent streets. Our surveys demonstrated that in the initial wave of the pandemic, 75% of the surveyed beaches were littered with COVID-19 related wastes, including masks, sanitizer bottles and wet wipes, among others. In the absence of regular beach cleaning, this results in marine litter pile-up with a wide range of socio-economic and ecological effects. Perhaps more awakening is that 40% of all marine litter is recyclable and that promotion of circular economy potentially eliminates this proportion of marine litter.

A bottle encountered in the Kenyan Benthic environmentSo where do we go from here. We believe that installation of waste receptor facilities at the beaches, promotion of circular economy and strict enforcement of polluter pays principle through extended producer responsibility will set the ball rolling towards countering marine litter pollution. Until this happens, we shall be at the next beach, reaching out, educating and collecting, towards trash free seas.

Discover More:

KMDVP: https://www.kmfri.go.ke/kmdvp/

DOI for the published papers
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111420
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111840
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111497
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112273

This article is part of an online series dedicated to the UN Ocean Decade. One story will be published each week that is related to initiatives, new knowledge, partnerships, or innovative solutions that are relevant to the following seven Ocean Decade outcomes. Access the special digital issue dedicated to the Ocean Decade here.

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