Abstract

Anthropogenic marine debris (AMD) is an ubiquitous problem, which has motivated public participation in activities such as beach surveys and clean-up campaigns. While it is known that beaches in the SE Paci- fic are also affected by this problem, the quantities and types of AMD remain largely unknown. In the con- text of an outreach project, volunteers (????1500 high-school students) participated in a nation-wide survey of AMD on 43 beaches distributed randomly along the entire Chilean coast (18°S to 53°S). The mean den- sity of AMD was 1.8 items m????2 and the major types were plastics, cigarette butts and glass. Densities in central Chile were lower than in northern and southern Chile, which could be due to different attitudes of beach users or to intense beach cleaning in central regions. We suggest that public participation in sur- veys and cleaning activities will raise awareness and thereby contribute to an improvement of the situation.