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The impact of the anthropause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on beach debris accumulation in Maui, Hawai'i - PubMed

️Sun Jan 01 2023

The impact of the anthropause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on beach debris accumulation in Maui, Hawai'i

Jens J Currie et al. Sci Rep. 2023.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions led to a considerable reduction in tourism and human activity on Maui, presenting a unique opportunity to study debris accumulation on local beaches during changing levels of human activities. Standardized daily debris accumulation surveys were completed at two beach sites in Maui, Hawai 'i before (2017) as well as throughout the initial year of the pandemic (2020-2021) and allowed for the assessment of pandemic-related restrictions on marine debris accumulation trends. Throughout the pandemic, reduced beach use due to higher lockdown levels had significant impacts on debris accumulation at both sites, but only one of the two sites experienced a significant decrease (~ 90% reduction) in debris accumulation rates when compared to the same months in 2017. Daily accumulation rates across two sites increased from an average of 16 items/100 m during peak lockdown levels to 43 items/100 m when restrictions eased. The observed fluctuations in debris accumulation rates, driven by changes in tourism and travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic emphasize the importance of proactive measures to protect the natural environment, including source reduction and effective legislation for waste prevention. By addressing both local and remote sources of debris and focusing on reducing waste at its source, it is possible to mitigate the impacts of debris accumulation on coastal environments and marine life in Hawai'i.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Map showing the location of the two survey sites on Maui with inserts showing the topographic details and locations of the 100 m transects. Site 1: Kama‘ole Beach Park III; Site 2: Ulua Beach. *Ocean Base Map Source: Esri,GEBCO, NOAA, National Geographic, DeLorme, HERE, Geonames.org, and other contributors*.

**Figure 2**
Daily visitor arrivals to Maui averaged weekly during the survey, accompanied by corresponding lockdown levels^,, from the most restrictive (Level 5) to the least restrictive (Level 1). Each point on the x-axis denotes a weekly sampling date.

**Figure 3**
Major debris categories classified at Sites 1 (A) and 2 (B) over 51 daily accumulation surveys conducted from May 6, 2020 to May 27, 2021.

**Figure 4**
Results from the best fit generalized additive model (GAM) for debris counts at Site 1 (Kam‘aole Beach) showing (A) model parameter estimates of Julian Day (where the first day is May 6, 2020 and last day is May 27, 2021) and (B) raw debris counts (points) and model predicted debris counts (line) per 100 m/day based on Julian Day. The shaded and dashed lines represent the 95% confidence intervals of the parameter estimates and fitted values respectively. The vertical ticks on image A indicate the day of observations (i.e. a rugplot).

**Figure 5**
Results from the best fit generalized additive model (GAM) for debris counts at Site 1 (Kam‘aole Beach) showing (A) model parameter estimates of lockdown levels (1 = low 5 = high) and (B) model predicted debris counts based on lockdown level. Dashed lines in image A represent the 95% confidence intervals of the parameter estimate and vertical ticks indicate the number of observations in each category (i.e. a rugplot).

**Figure 6**
Results from the best fit generalized additive model (GAM) for debris counts at Site 2 (Ulua Beach) showing (A) model parameter estimates of Julian Day (where the first day is May 6, 2020 and last day is May 27, 2021) and (B) raw debris counts (points) and model predicted debris counts per 100 m/day based on Julian Day. The shaded and dashed lines represent the 95% confidence intervals of the parameter estimates and fitted values respectively. The vertical ticks on image A indicate the day of observations (i.e. a rugplot).

**Figure 7**
A comparison of average daily debris accumulation rates at Sites 1 and 2 before (2017) and during (2020) the COVID-19 Pandemic, spanning August 26 to November 3.

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The impact of the anthropause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on beach debris accumulation in Maui, Hawai'i - PubMed