Assessing the citizen science approach as tool to increase awareness on the marine litter problem

Highlights

• It is crucial to educate new generations to prevent the problem of marine litter.

• Citizen science has important implications for awareness and education.

• Assessing the validity of citizen science as educational tool is an important step.

• SEACleaner Protocol: an adapted version of UNEP/IOC, OSPAR and EU-MSFD guidelines.

Abstract

This paper provides a quantitative assessment of students' attitude and behaviors towards marine litter before and after their participation to SEACleaner, an educational and citizen science project devoted to monitor macro- and micro-litter in an Area belonging to “Pelagos Sanctuary” (Mediterranean Sea). This approach produced interesting outcomes both for the research sector of marine pollution and environmental monitoring, as well for the scientific and environmental education. Here we focus on citizen science as an effective vector for raising young people awareness of marine litter and fostering sound behaviors. A specially designed questionnaire was administered to 87 High School students, to test the validity of such approach. The results state that the students change quantitatively their perception of beach-litter causes and derived problems, and they improved their knowledge about the main marine litter sources and the role of the sea in the waste transport and deposition along the coast.

Introduction

SEACleaner is an educational and citizen science project implemented from 2013 to 2018 by the Italian Institute of Marine Science (ISMAR-CNR, Istituto di Scienze Marine del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), in collaboration with other Research Institutes (DLTM, Ligurian District for Marine Technologies; INGV, Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia; ENEA, Agenzia nazionale per le nuove tecnologie, l'energia e lo sviluppo economico sostenibile). The project aims to collect data on macro- and micro- beached marine litter in the particularly vulnerable wide Macro-area belonging to “Pelagos Sanctuary” (International Protected Area in the NW Mediterranean Sea). Hundreds of secondary school students and volunteers attended a preparatory session and then carried out field activities together with the researchers. In detail, they collected data about the type, distribution and main pollution sources of macro “Anthropogenic Marine Debries”¹ (AMDs) in 11 beaches located in 5 different areas (Pianosa Island in the Tuscan Archipelago National Park; Migliarino, Massaciuccoli, San Rossore Natural Regional Park, hereinafter San Rossore Park; Palmaria Island in the Porto Venere Natural Regional Park; Cinque Terre National Park; Lerici). Results of a sub-sample of thirty-three surveys, taken between January 2014 and December 2015 in different seasons, allow an estimate of quantity, typology, distribution of beach litter within this coastal macro-area, and the assessment of the beach quality index for the studied sites (Giovacchini et al., 2018).

The citizen science approach has proven to be an efficient way to deal with scientific investigations, especially in ecology research (Danielsen et al., 2010; Dickinson et al., 2010, Dickinson et al., 2012; Garcia-Soto et al., 2017; Kobori et al., 2016; Newman et al., 2012; Reed, 2008; Roy et al., 2012a, Roy et al., 2012b; Theobald et al., 2015; Thiel et al., 2014) and Non-Indigenous Species (NIS) detecting (Azzurro et al., 2013; Crall et al., 2010; Mannino and Balistreri, 2018; Mioni et al., 2018). The assessment of this approach as an effective research tool has been explored (Crall et al., 2011; Forrester et al., 2015; Gillett et al., 2012; Hunter et al., 2013; Tregidgo et al., 2013; Tulloch et al., 2013) and the Thiel et al.' (2014) review showed that volunteer-generated data contributed information about population dynamics, distribution of marine organisms, marine litter and so on, and particularly supported long-term monitoring programs for Marine Protected Areas. Benefits include not only enhanced monitoring skills, but also increase in Ocean Literacy and citizens' empowerment (Eastman et al., 2013; Gelcich et al., 2014; Hartley et al., 2015; Santoro et al., 2017; Wyles et al., 2017), improving, at the same time, education in the environmental field (Eastman et al., 2014; Fletcher, 2013; Hartley et al., 2015; Merlino et al., 2015a; Merlino et al., 2015b; Mioni et al., 2016). Specifically, in the field of marine litter, monitoring studies described the citizen science contribution to data collection/elaboration (Anderson and Alford, 2014; Bravo et al., 2009; Browne et al., 2011; Carson, 2013; Claessens et al., 2011; Gago et al., 2014; Hidalgo-ruz and Thiel, 2013; Hong et al., 2014; Kordella et al., 2013; Nelms et al., 2017; Rosevelt et al., 2013; Smith and Edgar, 2014) and specified methodologies to assess its validity (Hidalgo-ruz and Thiel, 2013; van der Velde et al., 2017). The long history of citizen participation in science notwithstanding, the process of understanding the best way to implement and evaluate this approach is just beginning (Garcia-Soto et al., 2017), and more efforts in this sense are necessary. SEACleaner project is placed in this framework, as its purpose is twofold: to collect a large amount of data on quantity, typology, distribution of beach litter AMDs, through the application of a standard protocol and rigorous scientific criteria, and also to raise awareness about this daunting environmental problem. During the five years of the SEACleaner project, we realized that, despite its environmental impact and the growth of the related scientific literature (Alomar et al., 2016; Andrady, 2015; Collignon et al., 2014; Cózar et al., 2015; Eriksen et al., 2014; Faure et al., 2015; Fossi et al., 2014; Galgani, 2015; Galgani et al., 2013; Kordella et al., 2013; Kühn et al., 2015; Munari et al., 2016; Poeta et al., 2014; Ryan et al., 2009; Suaria et al., 2016; Thiel et al., 2014; Topçu et al., 2013; Van Sebille et al., 2015; Vlachogianni et al., 2017, Vlachogianni et al., 2018), the marine litter problem is often unknown to students and, as we know, it is not treated in standard Italian school programs. Therefore, it is very important to educate the younger generations about this issue. Involving students in real monitoring programs could be a perfect way to do that, with the result to join the scientific/environmental value with the educational one, making known the serious problem of pollution of our beaches and our seas, as well as promoting and disseminating the use of scientific methodology that underlies this type of investigation (Hidalgo-ruz and Thiel, 2013; Merlino et al., 2015a; Merlino et al., 2015b; Mioni et al., 2016). In this case, the involvement of students within both school hours and, sometimes, also during their free time, can be easily realized through the educational tool of work-related learning internships (ASL), a didactic tool that has become compulsory in Italy since the third year of high school.² The aim of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of the approach of SEACleaner project in raising the awareness of marine pollution problem in the high school students involved in the surveys, and in increasing their knowledge of this issue.