Seagrass meadows are ecologically and economically important but are now facing the issue of plastic pollution. This study identified 1,288 macroscopic-sized marine debris in seagrass beds in eastern and western Minahasa peninsula, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Of this number, majority (853) are macroplastics, 564 plastic items were recovered from the western region while only 289 items from the eastern region.  Macroplastics (>20mm) were the most prevalent debris (46-83%) with mean weight per unit area higher in the east coast (41±21 g/m^-2) compared to the west coast (17.6±9.8g/m^-2) of the peninsula. Among the plastic types (PL), a total of 17 types were found in the two regions, of which 16 types were found in the western region while only 7 in the eastern region. Plastic bags and small bottles dominated the macroplastics sampled from the study area, both in terms of percentage and density. Other debris types included cloth, rubber, glass, ceramics, and metals varied in terms of their proportions and density across the sampling stations. Further research is needed to understand the spatial and temporal variations of plastic abundance in North Sulawesi's seagrass beds.

Keywords: debris, coastal, plastics, seagrasses, waste