The flip-or-flop boutique: Marine debris on the shores of St Brandon's rock, an isolated tropical atoll in the Indian Ocean.

Abstract Isolated coral atollsare not immune from marine debrisaccumulation. We identified Southeast Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and the countries on the Arabian Sea as most probable source areas of 50 000 items on the shores of St. Brandon's Rock (SBR), Indian Ocean. 79% of the debriswas plastics. Flip-flops, energy drink bottles, and compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) were notable item types. The density of debris(0.74 m − 1 shore length) is comparable to similar islands but less than mainland sites. Intact CFLs suggests product-facilitated long-range transport of mercury. We suspect that aggregated marine debris, scavenged by the islands from currents and gyres, could re-concentrate pollutants. SBR islets accumulated debristypes in different proportions suggesting that many factors act variably on different debristypes. Regular cleaning of selected islets will take care of most of the accumulated debrisand may improve the ecology and tourism potential. However, arrangements and logistics require more study.