Marine seabed litter in Siberian Arctic: A first attempt to assess

Highlights: • The first assessment of the composition and amount of seabed litter in the Siberian Arctic is done. • No debris was found in the East Siberian and Laptev Sea. • The maximum amount of litter was detected in the Kara Sea. • Plastic has been the most frequently occurred type of seabed litter. • The main source of the garbage in the Kara Sea is the fishing fleet operated in the Barents Sea. The pollution of the Siberian Arctic seas bottom by anthropogenic debris is assessed for the first time based on the results of bottom trawl surveys conducted in the Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev, and Kara seas in 2019. In the East Siberian Sea and the Laptev Sea, no seabed litter was detected. The debris on bottom and near bottom was found in the Kara and Chukchi seas only. Plastic was the most frequently occurring type of seabed litter. The main source of the garbage encountered in the Kara Sea is the waste related to fishing activities in the Barents Sea.