Spatial Mismatch Between Tourism Hotspots and Anthropogenic Debris on Sandy Beaches in an Iconic Conservation Area

Anthropogenic debris on ocean beaches results from a complex interplay of human behaviours where pro-environmental attitudes and norms are juxtaposed against egotistical value frameworks underlying littering. Evidence from the literature demonstrates that concentrations of tourists concord with peaks in debris loads, particularly on urban beaches. Here, we test whether this link operates in an iconic conservation area (K’gari, Fraser Island) that is a world-famous conservation tourist destination. Tourists on the exposed beaches of the island are distributed in distinct hotspots centred on resorts, a beached shipwreck and landforms of outstanding beauty. Contrary to patterns observed in urban coastal tourism destinations, conservation tourism destinations contained significantly lower debris loads, effectively forming ‘cold spots’ of debris distribution and density along the shore. These cold spots consistently occur irrespective of differences in the underlying reasons why people congregate. The drops in debris loads are also spatially distinct (10 to 100 s metres) and create prominent alongshore gradients in beached litter. Notwithstanding these numerically significant, but spatially very limited, reductions in debris load, any environmental gain may be outweighed by the ecological harm caused by off-road vehicles used to access the tourist nodes. Still, the underlying pro-environmental behaviour can catalyse a broader spatial footprint of debris removal in the context of mitigating the serious threat to the irreplaceable cultural and ecological values posed by anthropogenic debris.