Massive accumulation of marine litter on the western coast line of Southern Kyushu, Japan, from July to December 2013

In August 1998, massive amounts of marine litter washed up along a stretch of the western coast line of Japans Kyushu region（Satsuma Peninsula in Kagoshima Prefecture）. Soon thereafter, marine litter monitoring began at Fukiagehama Beach on the same coast, and has been conducted monthly for the past 15 years. Since 2009, the monitoring program has provided warning alerts for massive marine litter drift, with the severity of the alerts based on the composition of the source regions and density of the indicator items. In July 2013, very large amounts of marine litter accumulated once again on the same coast. The density of the drift had increased by more than 30-fold compared with last month. The warning alerts for massive marine litter drift were given in this coast line in July 29, 2013 because the density of indicator items was greater than the warning value. The character was that a massive drift from a foreign source was spotted. Disposable lighter was used as an indicator item to identify the source regions as the probable sources of the marine litter. Specifically, the major out flow area was Meizhou City in Guangdong, China. The massive drift was thought to be a result of typhoon Soulik, which caused excessive flooding and destruction in the source regions. In addition to the disposable lighters from China and Taiwan, both blue and orange spindle-shaped plastic floats were used as indicator items from China and Taiwan; the accumulation of these items was estimated to have increased at rates of more than 96-fold, 108-fold, and 52 fold, respectively compared with last month, and some disposable syringes were also found ashore in the surveyed area. However, there are few domestic items. The massive marine drift alert was in place for 5 months until November 2013.