Benthic Debris Accumulation in Bathyal Grounds in the Antalya Bay, Eastern Mediterranean

The present study was carried out in the Bay of Antalya (eastern Mediterranean) between January and May 2012. A conventional bottom trawl was operated onboard of an research vessel. The depth of the sampling area varied between 200 and 800 m. The material, abundance and distribution of large marine pollutants were investigated in bathyal benthic zone. During the 32 hauls, a total of 220 kg debris and 920 items were collected. The mass of overall debris concentration range from 18.5 to 2,186 kg/km(2), number of debris range from 115 to 2,762 item/km(2). There is no significant difference between depth ranges for any kind of marine debris (P<0.05). The number percentage of plastic metal, glass, and other debris in total were 81.1%, 2.2%, 3.9% and 12.8%, respectively. Plastic litter was the most dominant material category by means of number.