Where are Brazil's marine litter scientific data?

Abstract

The environmental sciences work with datasets every day. Recently, data sharing has become a more familiar activity for academic researchers. Records of marine litter are scarce and generally difficult to find worldwide, especially in databases. This work reviews and analyzes data repositories to identify the existence of datasets related to marine litter in Brazil. Only one global repository specializing in marine litter was found, and it is in the early stages of operation. Only two datasets about marine litter in Brazil were found in the generalist repository Figshare that do not follow all the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) for data sharing. A few initiatives are being developed aiming to collect and share marine litter data, but only one of them (Our Blue Hands) is already in place and uses a standardized, replicable method, and aims to share the data by design. Our work identified interoperability as the main point to be tackled within our context. In the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030), it is essential that repositories are created, improved, and encouraged to address the specific needs of marine litter data-sharing and researchers' behavioral shift to start sharing the data already collected. Data sharing not only allows for the integrated vision of the academic community but can also contribute to public policies, helping decision-makers and encouraging a more sustainable science regarding financial and natural resource use.