As a complementary activity related to demographic studies on the population of Arctocephalus gazella, and with the purpose of having a baseline zero for further studies using the guidelines prepared by the CCAMLR Secretariat, a survey to develop a complete collection of marine debris and heavy garbage from the beaches of Cape Shirreff was intended to carry out during the Antarctic season 1993-94.
Since the snowmelt was near complete at the site during this season, it was possible to collect and store the greatest part of marine debris got together during several years from different areas of the Southern Ocean on which several fishing, logistic and tourist activities are developed.
Approximately a 70% of the litter collected was able to be transported to Santiago for further studies. The remainder and heaviest part was left in the field: It was necessary to stop the garbage recollection due to an accident suffered by the ship "Capitan Alcazar".
Once analyzed the marjne debris we realized that it was composed by 1.754 objects collected from 36 beaches, with a total of 284.29 kg. As in previous studies on beach litter from the area, it was mainly composed by plastic and synthetic fibres (92%), metal (3.5%), glass (3.4%) and paper (1.1%). From these samples it was possible lo identify trademarks from Australia, Canada, Chile, Greece, Korea, and USA, which are added to other previous ones from Argentine, Brazil, China, England, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, and Russia.
