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Plastics occurrence in the gastrointestinal tract of Zeus faber and Lepidopus caudatus from the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Summary
This study found plastic debris in the digestive tracts of two commercially important fish species from the Tyrrhenian Sea, with the silver scabbardfish showing a notably higher ingestion rate than the John Dory. Polypropylene, nylon, and polyamide were the dominant polymers identified, raising concerns for marine food chain contamination and human exposure through seafood consumption.
The present study investigates the occurrence of plastic pollution in two commercially important marine teleosts (Zeus faber and Lepidopus caudatus) from the northern coasts of Sicily (Tyrrhenian Sea). Plastics occurrence in the gastrointestinal tract was higher in Lepidopus caudatus (78.1%) than Zeus faber (51.4%). Debris characterization, carried out by micro-Raman spectroscopy, allowed identified the main types of found polymers as: polypropylene (PP), polyamide (PA), nylon and, to a lesser extent, polyethylene (PE). Of the two fish species studied, the silver scabbardfish appeared to be the more vulnerable to plastic ingestion. Our study represents a starting point that may pave the way for future investigation of the fate, accumulation and transfer of plastic debris to upper trophic levels, to verify their potential toxicity and to better understand strategies to mitigate this phenomenon.