Ingestion of marine litter by loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta, in Portuguese continental waters

Nicolau, Lídia; Marçalo, Ana; Ferreira, Marisa; Sá, Sara; Vingada, José; Eira, Catarina

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.12.021

Cited by 52 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In addition, Ocaña et al (2005) and Benhardouze et al (2008; suggested that the Loggerhead could use the southern part of the Alboran Sea as a specific foraging area due to the abundance of Polybius henslowii Leach, 1820 (Decapoda, Brachyura), a potential prey. This has been corroborated in a study on the relative abundance of invertebrates and significant numbers of stranded Loggerhead from south Portugal by Nicolau et al (2016b). Accordingly, studies developed by Bellido et al (2010aBellido et al ( , 2010b on strandings of Loggerheads in the Andalusian coast highlight the possibility that sea turtles spend more time in these waters than would be expected if they were only migrating through the Strait of Gibraltar.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Sea turtles in the eastern margin of the North Atlantic: the northern Ibero-Moroccan Gulf as an important neritic area for sea turtles

López¹,

Torreblanca

Báez

et al. 2018

Medit. Mar. Sci.

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This study summarizes nearly 20 years (1997-2015) of tracking strandings of sea turtles along the Andalusian coast. In this period 2495 specimens were recorded, most of them loggerhead turtles Caretta caretta (92.6%) and leatherback turtles Demochelys coriacea (7.1%). Two other species were almost insinificant, green turtle Chelonia mydas (0.2%) and Kemp’s ridley Lepidochelys kempi (0.1%). Significant part of the turtles were recorded in the Atlantic coast, although in this area the incidence of alive specimens was low. Spring and summer were the seasons with more specimens stranded, probably related to warmer and more productive waters. The size of the loggerhead turtles observed highlights an important presence of inmature specimens in Andalusian waters, although mature individuals were not rare. In the case of leatherback turtles, adult stage is the only detected in the specimens recorded.These results, combined with the fact that the Atlantic coast has a large continental shelf and a high primary productivity near the coast, suggesting that the gulf of Cádiz may represent a neritic habitat used by the sea turtles. In this case, new and more effective politics of conservation are needed in order to protect sea turtles in this area.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Sea turtles in the eastern margin of the North Atlantic: the northern Ibero-Moroccan Gulf as an important neritic area for sea turtles

López¹,

Torreblanca

Báez

et al. 2018

Medit. Mar. Sci.

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“…The potential land-based sources include poor waste management practices, ineffective municipal drainage systems, inefficient storm water discharge, sewage inputs and public littering (Chen, 2015; Free et al, 2014; Morritt et al, 2014). On the other hand, sea-based sources comprise of fishing activities, marine tourism industry, shipping, derelict fishing gear, aquaculture, including offshore oil and hydrocarbon industries (Bilkovic et al, 2014; Nicolau et al, 2016).…”

Section: Distribution and Occurrence Of Marine Debrismentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine debris: A review of impacts and global initiatives

et al. 2019

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Marine debris, defined as any persistent manufactured or processed solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment, has been highlighted as a contaminant of global environmental and economic concern. The five main categories of marine debris comprise of plastic, paper, metal, textile, glass and rubber. Plastics is recognised as the major constituent of marine debris, representing between 50% and 90% of the total marine debris found globally. Between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tonnes of consumer plastics end up in the world oceans annually, resulting in the presence of more than 100 million particles of macroplastics in only 12 regional seas worldwide, and with 51 trillion particles of microplastic floating on the ocean surface globally. The impacts of marine debris can be branched out into three categories; injury to or death of marine organisms, harm to marine environment and effects on human health and economy. Marine mammals often accidentally ingest marine debris because of its appearance that can easily be mistaken as food. Moreover, floating plastics may act as vehicles for chemicals and/or environmental contaminants, which may be absorbed on to their surface during their use and permanence into the environment. Additionally, floating plastics is a potential vector for the introduction of invasive species that get attached to it, into the marine environment. In addition, human beings are not excluded from the impact of marine debris as they become exposed to microplastics through seafood consumption. Moreover, landscape degradation owing to debris accumulation is an eyesore and aesthetically unpleasant, thus resulting in decreased tourism and subsequent income loss. There are a wide range of initiatives that have been taken to tackle the issue of marine debris. They may involve manual removal of marine debris from coastal and aquatic environment in form of programmes and projects organised, such as beach clean-ups by scientific communities, non-governmental organizations and the removal of marine litter from Europe’s four regional seas, respectively. Other initiatives focus on assessment, reduction, prevention and management of marine debris under the umbrella of international (the United Nations Environment Programme/Mediterranean Action Plan, the Oslo/Paris Convention) and regional organisations – that is, the Helsinki Commission. There are also a number of international conventions and national regulations that encourage mitigation and management of marine debris. However, it is argued that these initiatives are short-term unsustainable solutions and the long-term sustainable solution would be adoption of circular economy. Similarly, four of the sustainable developmental goals have targets that promote mitigation of marine debris by efficient waste management and practice of 3R. As evident by the Ad Hoc Expert Group on Marine Litter and Microplastics meeting, tackling the marine debris crisis is not a straightforward, one-size-fits-all solution, but rather an integrated and continuous effort required at local, regional and global level.

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“…Using a dissection microscope, plastic particles were removed, enumerated, and categorized into five classifications: fragment, pellet (spherical particle), fiber/line, film or foam (Free et al, 2014;McCormick et al, 2014). While instrumental analysis methods such as infrared or Raman spectroscopy are necessary for polymeric identification (i.e., polyethylene versus polypropylene), numerous studies have employed only visual identification for microplastic classification (e.g., Bond et al, 2014;Lavers et al, 2014;Devriese et al, 2015;Rochman et al, 2015;Romeo et al, 2015;Fossia et al, 2016;Hammer et al, 2016;Miranda and Carvalho-Souza, 2016;Nicolau et al, 2016;Peters and Bratton, 2016). Given the source (i.e., wastewater), fibers obtained in this processing would presumably be anthropogenic and derived from textiles, though a portion of fibers observed in wastewater may not be plastic, instead derived from other anthropogenic sources (Remy et al, 2015; Nirmela Arsem, personal communication).…”

Section: Wastewatermentioning

confidence: 99%