Work

Plastic ingestion in Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) from Lampedusa, central Mediterranean Sea (IT)

Year: 2026

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: 9 in 10 shearwaters had Plastic ingestion in Scopoli's shearwater (Calonectris diomedea) from Lampedusa (Italy), central Mediterranean Sea 88.9% 243 6× 129 of birds carried plastic (16 of 18) plastic items recovered more mass in gizzard than proventriculus mg in the heaviest single bird SUMMARYWe looked inside the stomachs of 18 Scopoli's shearwaters killed as bycatch on longlines off Lampedusa in 2023 and 2024.Sixteen of them carried plastic.Almost all of it sat in the gizzard, the muscular grinding stomach: 19.8 ± 7.18 mg per bird on average, six times the 3.3 ± 1.76 mg in the glandular proventriculus.Hard, dense items, industrial pellets and foam, turned up there and nowhere else, never once in a proventriculus, while thin film and fragments appeared in both. WHY IT MATTERSThe Mediterranean is among the most plastic-polluted seas on Earth , and this species forages across all of it.1 A single ingested plastic item carries an estimated 20.4% lifetime mortality risk .2Plastic consumption causes widespread organ damage indicating potential sublethal effects .3

Source: Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano)

Authors: Tossani, F., De Pascalis, F., Rubolini, D., Parolini, M.

Language: English

Topic: Microplastics and Plastic Pollution

Subfield: Pollution

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life below water, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7215026864

FWCI:

Cites: 2

Cited by:

Related to: 10