Abundance and mass of plastic litter on sandy shore: Contribution of stormy events.

The accumulation of marine litter on beaches has a detrimental impact on the environment, human health, and recreational activities. A total of 116 monitoring surveys were conducted along the shore of the Kaliningrad region between 2019 and 2023. Sampling of anthropogenic and plastic litter (>0.5 cm) was carried out under various meteorological conditions on eight sandy beaches. The greatest abundance and mass of plastic marine litter (mean ± SE: 13.75 ± 8.61 items/m and 19.97 ± 5.92 gDW/m, correspondingly) were observed in the aftermath of storms within beach-cast accumulation stains at the shoreline, where it was intermixed with organic debris. This is two orders of magnitude greater than the plastic litter contamination obtained using the OSPAR methodology at the same beach during fine weather (0.11 ± 0.01 items/m, 0.33 ± 0.02 gDW/m). The results suggest that the most effective strategy for beach cleaning is to implement it in the post-storm period.