ZEWSGES Beach Litter Monitoring No. 01 – Bulgaria (TDCNM Partner) Name & position of main author: Ms. Fani Semerdjieva- Marine Environment Coordinator, Bulgaria Name & position of Mr. Konstantin Lefterov (ZEWSGES Project coordinator) contributors: Ms. Sonya Enilova (EEP Coordinator) Places visited Beaches of coastal Burgas Region, Bulgas Objective/purpose of field visit: Reconnaissance of beaches of Burgas Region Identification and setting up of survey site Meeting invited participants of the survey Training of surveyors Beach litter monitoring Summary: Mr. Konstantin Lefterov (BSB CBC ZEWSGES Project coordinator), Ms. Sonya Enilova (Ecosystem Education Programme Coordinator) and Ms. Fani Semerdjieva (Marine Environment Coordinator) visited several beaches in Burgas Region (Bulgaria). During the fieldwork, number of beaches have been visited (see Maps bellow) and reviewed according to project provided criteria and monitoring plans. The visits were organised in order to select the beach that will be monitoring and after that the clean – up activities will be carried out. Project name ZEWSGES – Zero Waste Strategy For Good Environmental Status – BSB257 Start date 08-01-2019 Final date 23-01-2019 Marine litter monitoring campaign in Burgas region, Bulgaria had to be carried out by the end of January, 2019. This has been the first planned monitoring action in the framework of the "Zero Waste Strategy for Good Environmental Status (ZEWSGES) – BSB257" project, that has started in August 2018. Burgas Region is located along Black Sea coast of Bulgaria. Six of thirteen municipalities of Burgas region are on the Black Sea cost- Nessebar, Pomorie, Burgas, Sozopol, Primorsko, Tzarevo Municipalities. Beaches in Burgas Region are composed of mainly sand . Map 1 of the Bulgarian Black Sea cast. In order to reach project objectives following activities have been carried out: "Guideline for Monitoring Marine Litter on the Beaches in the OSPAR Maritime Area" document was carefully studied and agreed that provided methodologies are appropriate to choose for the project implementation in Burgas region. The “OSPAR Marine Litter Monitoring Survey Form” will be translated into Bulgarian language and agreed to be used for the second monitoring and the clean-up activities . A meeting with a deputy District Governor was done to receive a list of the beaches which are not rented / under concession for the moment of monitoring. The beaches in town of Nessebar, Obzor, village of Emona / Emona Beach/ and town of Pomerie were visited for the purpose of selection one proper beach for monitoring. Only beaches which are not rented by the Government were visited. Beach site was selected and monitoring trial conducted. Pictures and a short movie for the beach were done. Field work #01 on the selected beach was done on 23 January 2019 . The following program was carries out during the field mission: 08 January 2019: The beach “Smrikite” Nessebar was visited. We saw that the beach is very clean and the monitoring and clean – up activities are not appropriate for these beaches. # Place Description Beach Litter Degree Suitability 01 “Smrikite” Nessebar The beach is far from main road, cross forest in Low degree of beach Not suitable due to the bad the mountain. The beach is composed of grey litter access for clean-up sands. No hotels, houses of other building are activities and litter constructed around. Beach width is 20-30 m. The removal. beach is not a subject to clean-up activities because it is not rented and not guarded during touristic season. Although the beach is very clean. “Smrikite” Beach 23 January 2013: -The team visited one of the beach in Town of Obzor, North form Nesebar municipality. The beach is big enough more than 2 km. length, not rented/under concession, no buildings around, but the access for people and for litter removal was not very proper. It is mountainous road and difficult for access to the beach. Students Camp # Place Description Beach Litter Degree Suitability 02 “Students Camp Beach” Obzor Town of Obzor is situated in the East Part of Old Medium degree of beach Not suitable due to Mountain. The road to the beach is through the litter. difficult access for busses mountin- narrow and sleepy. Seashore is or trucks for litter removal. bordered by mountain and forest. Beach width on this part of the seashore varies between 50-60 m. Beach is composed mainly of sands. This is an active place used during the tourism season, not rented /free of charge/ and not guarded. No clean- up activities are done. The stairs to the beach of Obzor and the beach. - Back to Burgas the team visited the beach Irakli, Village of Emona. The road to that beach is very narrow. Also a huge construction works are in a process around the beach so this beach was also considered as not appropriate for the project activities. # Place Description Beach Litter Degree Suitability 03 Irakli The beach is bordered by forest and mountain. Low degree of beach Not suitable due to the The seashore is composed of grey sand, width of litter. high level of construction the beach varies between 40-50 m. The beach is works and free access of not rented and not guarded, no cleaned-up vehicles. activities are foreseen by municipality . A intensive construction works are in process at the moment. Although the beach is clean. Irakli Beach. - The last beach visited in this day was in Pomirie, 15 km. North from Burgas. The name of the beach is Pomorie Sandspit /sand strip/. It is composed of black sand and is exposed to the open sea on one side and Pomorie salt lake on the other side. The beach is accessible for survey all year round and is accessible for ease of marine litter removal and is over 5 km in length and 50 m. width. The beach is free of ‘buildings’ all year round and have never been a subject to any other litter collection activities. It is protected nature area “Pomorie lake”, which is a natural hyper saline lagoon situated along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast north of Pomorie. # Place Description Beach Litter Degree Suitability 4 Pomorie Sandspit Beach The Beach is bordering with a road, located 2 km. Low-medium degree of Suitable. No active human from the city centre. Beach is bordered by beach litter during winter influence seems visible. Pomorie lake- protected area, nice site for season. During summer EEP activities can be ecosystem education activities as well. No season the beach is combined with litter buildings or summer houses are presented crowded because the monitoring and clean-up immediately at the area. Not rented and not curative mud from the activities. It is interesting guarded. lake and the litter degree to have a clean- up is very high. activities after the summer season, together with the monitoring activities in September. - Totally 4 not- rented beaches were visited in Burgas region . The project reference beach (see Map 2 ) was selected according to OSPAR methodology. Meeting with the mayor of Pomorie Municipality was done and next meeting with head of Pomorie Municipality Clean-up Service and Directors of two of the target schools in Pomorie was planned for beginning og March. Pictures and a short movie with the litter were done. PomorieMap 2. Selected beach Pomorie Sandspit Beach Conclusion and results From the visited and above described beaches beach N 4 have been chosen as a reference beach for monitoring and clean-up activities. Beach is located on the border inside the borders of town of Pomorie , which is another argument for selection. Reference beach is governmental owned and not rented for commercial use. From the east it borders with Black Sea and from west is the Protected Area Pomorie Lake. During the winter season the selected beach is low polluted and the TDNCM team counted the litter and reported it in the Survey Form /Annex_1/. The clean-up activities with target groups are planned for April due to more appropriate weather conditions. For the purpose of the project and the clean-up activities the project team is sure that there will more efficient to organise a second clean- up activities in September 2019 after the end of the tourism season. The marine litter surveying training will be carried out for school teachers and students before the event. Due to the low littering of selected beach and the type of the reported litter it could be concluded that the most of the litters come from the visitors of the beach. Main points to discuss and future actions Beach monitoring questionnaire can be reworked and adopted to Bulgarian reality (if needed) and also to ease the students, teachers, etc. to report the litter types. The long list of paragraphs makes beach clean-up and monitoring process complicated. .