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f so efi with debris (16 items per 100 m2), while the other remained ‘clean ’ and acted as control. Benthic megafauna was censused with SCUBA diving, once before the littering episode and then monthly for one year. Both total abundance and the number of species showed an increasing trend in the impacted surfaces, either because the litter provided refuge or reproduction sites for mobile species or because is a greatly underestimated component of marine pollution. Although there are various types of debris, plastics (syn-described as a serious mortality factor. Marine species may ingest plastic particles (mainly plastic pellets used by 1988), blockage of gastric enzyme secretion, lowered ste-roid hormone levels, delayed ovulation and reproductive 1982; Barnes, 2002; Barnes and Milner, 2005). Barnes (2002) estimated that human litter more than doubles the rafting opportunities for biota, assisting the dispersal of ‘alien ’ species. Derraik (2002) has recently reviewed the threats to the marine environment from plastic pollution and stated the need for further research into the topic