O mergulho autônomo como ferramenta de análise da poluição marinha: um estudo na Baía da Ilha Grande (Rio de Janeiro, Brasil)

Abstract

Marine pollution is a subject that is part of everyday life, the problem has been presented in various media and debated by several countries, considering its seriousness and the urgent need to think about mitigating impacts. The main objective of this work was to identify, count and classify solid waste in Ilha Grande Bay, in addition to discussing the relationship between the different uses of the marine environment, giving a greater focus on tourism and fishing activities, common in the region. Data collection was carried out by scuba divers, using the Reef Check methodology. The results showed a greater amount of residues found in the dives carried out in the sheltered part, a result that generates trends of greater use in these areas by tourism activities and some fishing modalities. The exposed environments showed a smaller amount of residues, and most of the materials found come from fishing activities, such as lines, fishing rods and other equipment. The tourist activity tends to prefer quieter environments for the possibility of exercising the visitation in a more pleasant and safe way, therefore, the anchorages tend to occur in the sheltered parts, that is, facing the mainland. Fishing, for the most part, does not have as its main objective the comfort of anchoring the vessels, but an environment that allows a greater number of fish, for this reason, the vessels tend to anchor in the exposed part. The different uses that occur in the water depth reflect on the submerged landscape, these modifications could be observed, cataloged and analyzed by the project team divers. In addition to the numbers actually analysed, the participation of scuba divers was quite positive, maturing social participation in conservation projects, mainly linked to full protection conservation units. It was possible to understand that public policies, ways to manage protected areas and ways of thinking about the environment are even richer when structured as a team. In the case of coastal and marine environments, when also thought of by scuba divers in the region, who have routine contact with the environment.