I found an item of debris smaller than 2.5 cm in the longest dimension. Why can’t I record it on the data sheet?

Smaller (meso- and micro-size) debris is hazardous to marine life and in some instances may be more abundant than larger debris. However, the 2.5 centimeters size cutoff (about the size of a bottle cap) is used as a standard metric because it is the smallest size that can reliably and consistently be detected with the human eye. Having this size standard increases the reliability of the data being collected, providing a more accurate picture and more robust results. Feel free to record comments or counts of small debris in the “notes” section of the datasheet.