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The first monitoring campaign of macro and microplastics in the sea waters of the Italian Salento was launched this week. The monitoring of marine and coastal litter, which is part of the activities envisaged by the COMMON project, is conducted by CIHEAM Bari - as partner of the project - with the support of the University of Salento - Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies - DiSTeBA.

The monitoring was carried out through transects and with the direct observation of floating macroplastics and thanks to the use of a "manta", a network specially designed for the sampling of microplastics on the water column surface layer.

The activity currently involved the areas of Lizzano and Gallipoli, on the Ionian side of the Apulia region and will soon be carried out on the Adriatic side, in the waters in front of the city of Otranto. The one launched in recent days was the first of four waste monitoring campaigns that will be carried out by 2022.

The samples taken will be analyzed in the laboratories of the CIHEAM Bari headquarters in Valenzano, to define exactly the state of pollution of the surface waters of our seas. The Salento is one of the five pilot areas involved in the project, togheter with the Italian Maremma, the Kuriat Island and Monastir in Tunisia and Tyre in Lebanon.

Here the italian version of the news