Shipping and Marine Debris in the Wider Caribbean: Answering a Difficult Challenge

Abstract

Marine debris, a global pollution problem, is especially serious for the Wider Caribbean, a region of more than three dozen diverse states and territories renowned for its fragile, natural beauty. In this developing region, already beset with a dense resident population (Table 14.1), beauty makes tourism the number-one source of foreign exchange. Fueled by the burgeoning coastal populations and exacerbated by booming tourism, the marine debris problem is magnified in the Wider Caribbean, with more and more people generating more and more garbage, much of it finding its way to the sea.