Nearshore circulation in the Confital Bay : implications on marine debris transport and deposition at Las Canteras Beach

Abstract

This study attempts to expand knowledge on hydrodynamics in coastal regions and its impacts on debris transport and deposition. Hydrodynamics in the El Confital Bay (Gran Canaria, Canary Islands), a semi-enclosed basin including an urban beach in its inner part (Las Canteras Beach), with a high density of users and providing different recreational opportunities, is examined and related to marine debris collected at different locations along the beach. The whole bay constitutes a unique ecosystem with different habitats of national and international interest and the beach exhibits the particular geomorphological characteristic of being partially enclosed by a natural discontinuous rocky reef. Experimental measurements of different hydrodynamic parameters are obtained for examining the circulation in the zone and to assess the performance of a circulation numerical model used to synthetize current fields under different metocean scenarios. Information on marine debris collected on the shoreline during different beach surveys is examined and processed. Possible relationships between synthetic circulation patterns and debris occurrence and properties are explored.