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Where do you go to find information and data on marine pollution? This paper sets out to give pointers to the most useful sources, and is divided into three sections: bibliographic sources, data sources and referral sources.

In 1987, Campbell Soup Company introduced the Souper Combo, a line of frozen soup and sandwiches. Melvin Druin, vice‐president for packaging, called it “the perfect combination of old‐fashioned good taste and today's convenience. No mess. No fuss. Easy to use. All you have to do is clean your spoon. Everything else just throw away.” Unfortunately, the multi‐layered plastic‐coated packaging does not just disappear when thrown away. Plastics packaging, particularly from convenience products, has become a waste disposal nightmare. Garbage, an environmental magazine, gave the Souper Combo an “in the dumpster” award, saying, “It's precisely the kind of product that's created the municipal landfill monster.”

Recently, China has been paying increasing attention to how to improve the efficiency of the marine environment and realize a green and sustainable development of the marine economy. Consequently, the industrial structure is crucial to improving efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to introduce environmental factors into the efficiency analysis framework and explore the relationship between marine industrial structure and marine environmental efficiency.

This paper uses marine economic data under the DEA-BBC model to measure the marine environmental efficiency of provinces and cities and classifies them by cluster analysis. Then, the marine industrial structure and marine environmental efficiency are studied by an econometric model with human capital, ownership structure, land economic development level, scientific research input and government intervention degree as control variables.

The overall level of marine environmental efficiency is relatively low in China, increasing and then decreasing over the research period. The rationalization of industrial structure and scientific research input have significant promoting effects on marine environmental efficiency, while the degree of government intervention has a significant inhibiting effect. The positive effect of human capital on efficiency depends on whether it can be successfully converted into productivity. The effects of industrial structure advancement, ownership structure and land economic development level of on the marine environmental efficiency are mixed.

The results provide a theoretical and decision-making basis for China to transform and upgrade its marine industrial structure and sustainably develop the marine economy.

The objective to achieve economic growth and sustainable development (SD) within the maritime industry has ever since been the ultimate goal of the International Maritime Organization and its stakeholders. Coupled with this effect, the United Nations organization has also mandated all its bodies to adopt sustainable working policies and practices towards the achievement of SD in its 2030 Agenda. From the standpoint of an emerging economy, this study aims to examine green maritime practices adopted by maritime authorities towards the achievement of SD in the maritime industry of Ghana. The proposed conceptual model of this study supports the natural resource-based view theory advocated by Hart (1995).

The dataset of this study was gathered using semi-structured questionnaires. A total of 635 valid responses were received as feedback which were tested and analyzed using partial least square structural equation modelling. The rationale for the adoption of this analytical tool is its resilient ability to handle a relatively small quantity of datasets. It is also suitable for empirical studies involving model development and at the early stage of theory development.

The findings of the study are as follows; firstly, quality maritime education and training directly and significantly influence green maritime transport (GMT), clean ocean and maritime resource conservation (COMRC), green port operations and services (GPOS), SD and waste management and treatment systems (WMTS). Secondly, GMT, COMRC, GPOS and WMTS have a direct significant influence on SD. Lastly, GMT, COMRC, GPOS and WMTS partially mediate the relationship between quality maritime education and training and SD.

This study proposes a conceptual model that attempts to explain to maritime authorities and stakeholders that although the adoption of green maritime practices significantly influences SD, yet, it may be insufficient without quality maritime education and training provided to maritime professionals. Hence, emphasizing that all maritime personnel receive quality maritime education and training to enhance the long-term achievement of SD in the maritime industry. It also attempts to prove and suggest to maritime authorities how they can collectively integrate both onshore and offshore green maritime practices to achieve SD.

The originality of this study shows in testing a conceptual model that affirms that, achieving SD in the maritime industry is dependent on quality maritime education and training received by maritime personnel, hence, demonstrating the significant role of maritime training institutions towards the maritime industry and the achievement of SD.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the high-quality development level of China's marine economy and analyze corresponding spatial and temporal distribution characteristic.

Design and optimize the index system of high-quality development level of marine economy and use entropy and TOPSIS method for comprehensive evaluation.

The research finds that from 2017 to 2019, the high-quality development tendency of China's marine economy is on the rise, but the overall level is still low. The level of each subsystem has different distribution characteristics in different provinces and cities. Guangdong, Shandong and Shanghai have a high comprehensive level. According to the comprehensive level of high-quality development of marine economy, 11 coastal provinces are divided into three types: leading, general and backward.

This paper clarifies the temporal and spatial distribution law of high-quality development level of China's marine economy, providing basis for promoting comprehensive and coordinated improvement of coastal provinces and cities.

An indicator system for the high-quality development level of the marine economy has been established, including social development guarantee, marine economic foundation, marine science and technology drive and green marine sustainability.

Current evidence indicates that humans and animals are at increased risk of multiple health challenges due to microplastic (MP) profusion. However, mitigation is constrained by inadequate scientific data, further aggravated by the lack of evidence in many African countries. This review therefore synthesized evidence on the current extent of MP pollution in Africa and the analytical techniques for reporting.

A literature search was undertaken in research databases. Medical subject headings (MeSH) terms and keywords were used in the literature search. The authors found 38 studies from 10 countries that met the inclusion criteria.

Marine organisms had MPs prevalence ranging from 19% to 100%, whereas sediments and water samples had between 77 and 100%. The most common and dominant polymers included polypropylene and polyethylene.

This review shows that most studies still use methods that are prone to human errors. Therefore, the concentration of MPs is likely underestimated, even though the authors’ prevalence evaluations show MPs are still largely pervasive across multiple environmental matrices. Also, the study reveals significant spatial disparity in MP research across the African continent, showing the need for further research in other African countries.

Even though some reviews have assessed MPs pollution in Africa, they have not evaluated sample prevalence, which is necessary to understand not only concentration but pervasiveness across the continent. Secondly, this study delves deeper into various methods of sampling, extraction and analysis of MPs, as well as limitations and relevant recommendations.

The serial coverage and indexing policies of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts (ASFA), Oceanic Abstracts, Biosis, and Georef were compared. Analyses indicated considerable overlap in serial sources in marine biology for ASFA, Oceanic Abstracts, and Georef. Biosis appeared to include the largest amount of material relevant to marine biology and Georef the largest relevant to marine geology. Oceanic Abstracts and Georef provided the most extensive general subject indexing, Biosis the most complete taxonomic indexing, and ASFA and Georef the easiest systems for geographic retrieval.

The purpose of this paper is to measure a port's green performance. The literature is reviewed and a survey is carried out to identify major green port performance indicators and to evaluate three major ports' overall green performance in Asia. Indicators located in the critical quadrants with a high degree of importance and low degree of performance are identified and resources are suggested that can be employed to improve the ports' overall sustainability performance effectively.

Port performance indicators are reviewed to select the green‐related ones by a session of brain storming with academicians from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in the shipping discipline. Selected indicators are used to design an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) questionnaire. The weight and degree of performance of each of the 17 green indicators among three major container ports are calculated by the data obtained from the AHP round survey respondents.

Avoiding pollutants during cargo handling and port maintenance, noise control, and sewage treatment were perceived to be the three critical indicators by respondents in two of the three ports investigated. Among the three investigated ports, Shanghai port had the highest number of critical indicators to be improved. Air pollutants avoidance, encouraging the use of low‐sulphur fuel, and using electrically powered equipment were three of the five critical indicators found in Shanghai port, but not in the other two investigated ports in this study.

The theoretical implications of this research are the development of a conceptual framework to measure the degree of importance of a set of green port performance indicators, and to provide a decision support system to help port authorities to evaluate their performance regarding the 17 green port performance indicators compared with that of other ports.