Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia

Particulate matter Subsurface Salinity Subsurface Temperature Marine debris

This data describes the characterisation and estimated concentration of marine plastics in waters around Australia from surface net tows. The marine plastics recorded were predominantly small fragments (‘‘microplastics’’) resulting from the breakdown of larger objects made of polyethylene and polypropylene (e.g. packaging and fishing items).

This data accompanies the following publication: Reisser J, Shaw J, Wilcox C, Hardesty BD, Proietti M, et al. (2013) Marine Plastic Pollution in Waters around Australia: Characteristics, Concentrations, and Pathways. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80466. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080466

Data and resources

Marine_Plastics

Download data in a range of formats via OGC WFS.

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Original data: Collection 1 [Australia-wide]

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Original data: Collection 2 [additional data for north-west Marine Region]

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Supplementary data

Information related to the types of marine plastics collected during the study

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Marine_Plastics

MAP - location of net tows

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Additional information

Temporal extent	2011-06-10 – 2013-09-08
Date (creation)	2018-05-30
Status	completed
Update frequency	notPlanned
Metadata language	en
License	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Source metadata	ISO 19115 XML
Last updated	2026-11-05
Created	2026-11-05
API	package_show