This richly illustrated book serves as the ideal guide to the items that litter the world's beaches. Forget sea shells and other fauna and flora. Here, you will find what a beachcomber is actually most likely to encounter most these days: glass, plastic, wood, metal, paper, oil, and other sources of marine pollution!
Complete with more than 600 color photographs, The Beachcomber's Guide to Marine Debris shows the full range of marine debris items, each presented with insight and a pinch of humor. In addition, the author provides full details about these items of beach litter. You will learn everything worth knowing about them. This includes not just their sources and decomposition stages. You will also discover the threat each item poses to these beautiful environments as well as prevention strategies, clean-up recommendations, alternative products, and recycling and upcycling ideas.
Beyond the aesthetic issue, marine debris poses a threat to wildlife, human health, and economic welfare. The Beachcomber's Guide to Marine Debris arms you with the knowledge you need to combat this pollution that is all too visible. Travel the world's most beloved tourist destinations with this book by your side and help restore these delicate environments to their natural beauty.
Michael Stachowitsch received his B.Sc. degree at the Univ. of Pittsburgh and his PhD at the Univ. of Vienna. He has successfully managed to maintain a career as a marine biologist in a landlocked country, conducting research in the Adriatic and Red Seas and teaching numerous university courses. He is the long-term Austrian coordinator of a Mediterranean sea turtle conservation project in Turkey and represents Austria at the International Whaling Commission. Michael's many activities as a scientist, author, translator and editor have taken him to beaches around the globe: the fauna and flora differ from shore to shore, the beach litter is astoundingly uniform – and abundant. Decades on hands and knees with a camera yielded this book and revealed unsettling truths about human attitudes and behaviour.