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Marine litter is a growing environmental problem for which fisheries-sourced waste remains poorly understood. In Peru, there is an ongoing challenge of waste management from the small-scale fisheries fleet given the lack of facilities to receive the variety of debris produced by fishers, which includes hazardous wastes such as batteries. In this study, onboard solid waste production was monitored daily by land-based observers upon landing at the port of Salaverry, Peru, from March to September 2017. The analysed small-scale gillnet and longline fishing fleets produced annually an estimated 11,260 kg of solid waste. Of particular concern is the production of single use plastics (3427 kg) and batteries (861 kg) due to their potential long-lasting impacts on the environment and challenges related to their proper disposal. A management plan for solid waste has been developed for Salaverry; therefore, a subsequent assessment was conducted in 2021–2022 of the behaviours and perceptions of fishers regarding the implementation of this plan. Most fishers (96%) reported disposing of their waste on land, except organic waste which is disposed of at sea. While fishers in Salaverry have become more conscious of the issues surrounding at-sea waste disposal and have an interest in better segregating and managing their waste, there remains a need for improved waste management and recycling protocols and procedures at the port to make this possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding processes responsible for shaping biodiversity patterns on continental margins is an important requirement for comprehending anthropogenic impacts in these environments. Continental margins perform crucial functions which are mainly structured by hydrodynamic effects and surface primary productivity. However, to what extent these processes control benthic local and regional biodiversity remains unclear. In this study, we focused on two isobathic parallel transects to test if food resources arriving at the seafloor and hydrodynamic effects affect alpha and beta diversity at different depths in similar ways. We also examined the potential role of connectivity between both depths as a result of dispersal. This is the first study applying integrative approaches using molecular and morphological techniques in combination with environmental factors to unravel spatial variability and connectivity in relation to depth in the deep sea. Results revealed that high variability in resource availability is directly linked to high alpha diversity and spatial heterogeneity, and that communities dwelling in deeper regions are able to use resources complementarily promoting species coexistence. Our study also demonstrated that higher hydrodynamics at the shallower habitats near the shelf break, as inferred from the high sediment heterogeneity, promoted variation in community structure across stations (higher beta diversity) compared to the deeper area. In addition, phylogenetic relationships revealed no evidence for depth-endemic lineages or isolation per habitat, indicating regular species interchanges across different depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]