Seafloor Marine Litter Counts in UK Waters, 2012-2017

DataSalon hosts a dataset from the UK Government Digital Service used to assess seafloor litter density for the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The dataset contains counts of different litter categories collected between 2012 and 2017, supporting an assessment published in 2019. It was sourced from the eu_open_data platform.

Use Cases

• Assessing the density and distribution of seafloor litter based on categorical counts mentioned in the description.
• Analyzing temporal trends in marine debris pollution within the UK Exclusive Economic Zone for the 2012-2017 period.
• Supporting policy evaluation and reporting for the MSFD indicator on seafloor litter.
• Training models to categorize and quantify different types of marine waste from survey data.

Strengths

• Data is tied to a specific regulatory assessment (MSFD) published in 2019, providing a clear use context.
• Covers a defined geographic area (UK EEZ) and a multi-year time range (2012-2017).

Limitations

• Row count, file size, and specific column definitions are unknown, limiting suitability assessment.
• Last update date and license information are unavailable.
• Data freshness is unverified beyond the 2017 collection year referenced.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service, United Kingdom.

Collection Method

Likely collected via seafloor surveys for environmental monitoring.

Time Range

2012 to 2017

Freshness

Data collection concluded in 2017 for an assessment published in 2019; last update is unknown.

Geography

United Kingdom Exclusive Economic Zone (UK EEZ)