Clean Atlantic Project

CleanAtlantic project aims to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Area by improving the ability to monitor, prevent and remove (macro) marine litter. The project will also contribute to raising awareness and changing attitudes among stakeholders and improving marine litter management systems.
The project's main objectives are:

• To provide an overview of the current situation, existing knowledge, data and initiatives in the Atlantic regions and definition of gaps;
• Review of current systems to monitor and record marine litter and provide protocols, tools and indicators to address monitoring needs;
• Development of modelling tools to predict the origin, circulation and destination of marine litter and elaboration of regional maps of accumulation hot spots using models, remote sensing technologies and aerial, surface and submarine systems;
• Address prevention through the development of best practices to reduce inputs from the fisheries and port sectors;
• Combat the removal of marine litter by implementing litter fishing initiatives, reducing the presence of “abandoned and discarded fishing gear” on the seabed, and developing best practices for routine beach litter cleaning by local authorities;
• Provide training and awareness-raising activities aimed at various audiences and transfer project results to competent authorities and key stakeholders in order to improve management and facilitate the implementation of the DQEM Directive (Marine Strategy Framework Directive).

This project is aligned with the following Sustainable Development Goal (SDG):