PROTEGO Launches First Marine Litter Monitoring Round in Calabar, Nigeria
On 26 and 27 March, the PROTEGO team visited Nsidung, Calabar, to carry out the first round of marine litter monitoring in Nigeria.
The first day was dedicated to a hands-on training session in which community volunteers were guided through the full monitoring methodology, covering site selection, transect demarcation, plastic characterization, and data recording using the Ocean Eye app. The goal was to build a local team capable of conducting consistent, scientifically grounded fieldwork across multiple sampling rounds.
On the second day, the team moved into the field. Using the terrestrial sampling protocol, they systematically collected and characterized mismanaged plastics across defined transects at the Nsidung beach market.
The same team will return to this exact site over the coming months for up to four additional sampling rounds, applying the same methodology each time. The repetition allows the project to track changes in plastic pollution over time, measure the effectiveness of pilot solutions, and build the robust, comparable datasets that municipalities and policymakers need to take informed action.
Check the photos bellow:
