Henderson Island beach debris data 2015

Marine debris

Data on the type, provenance, quantity (density), and rate of accumulation of beach-washed plastic debris were recorded on Henderson Island, a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific during 29 May – 15 August 2015. Henderson Island is rarely visited by humans, thus debris on the islands' beaches may act as a proxy for the adjacent South Pacific Ocean. The island was found to contain the highest density of debris anywhere in the world, up to 671.6 items/m2 (mean ± SD: 239.4 ± 347.3 items/m2 on the surface of the beaches. Approximately 68% of debris (up to 4,496.9 pieces/m2) was buried <10 cm in the beach sediment. Up to 26.8 new items/m are thought to accumulate daily.

Data and resources

DATA ACCESS - beach debris data

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Associated publication

Lavers, J.L. & Bond, A.L. (2017). Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world’s most remote and pristine islands, Proc. Natl.…

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ORCID

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License Graphic

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Additional information

Temporal extent	2015-05-29 – 2015-08-15
Date (creation)	2020-01-06
Status	completed
Update frequency	notPlanned
Metadata language	en
License	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
Source metadata	ISO 19115 XML
Last updated	2026-11-05
Created	2026-11-05
API	package_show