Fisheries and marine litter: anthropogenic pressures on the Gulf of Asinara biodiversity (North-Western Mediterranean Sea)

The study of marine litter in different environmental compartments, including biota, implies a great sampling effort to achieve a comprehensive assessment of the impact on the ecosystems. Taking advantage of fishery activities can help to obtain a large amount of data, both on the environment and marine organisms, collaborating with many sea-users to evaluate sources and impacts of marine litter in a certain area. In the framework of the MoRiNet project, several sampling campaigns have been carried out with a bottom trawl vessel to monitor seafloor litter and microplastic ingestion in fish and invertebrate species in a high ecological relevant area of the Mediterranean Sea, the Gulf of Asinara. More than 30 sampling sites and 17 species (n = 346) have been monitored between June and October 2021. The results show that the concentration of seafloor litter (0-732 Items/Km2) in the Gulf of Asinara area is lower than in other regions of the Mediterranean Sea and marine litter items originate mainly from fisheries activities. Microplastic/microfiber ingestion has been evaluated in demersal species with different trophic levels and feeding habits, caught in the same hauls as the seafloor monitoring. Among the 17 species, Mullus barbatus, Pagellus acarne and Coelorhynchus coelorhynchus show the highest anthropogenic particles ingestion occurrence (63-75 Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/558783/document