Insights into the distribution and ingestion of prey-like plastic fishing lures in Mediterranean rough-toothed dolphins.

Autor: Foskolos I; Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Athens, Greece; Wildlife Ecology Section, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; Zoophysiology Section, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. Electronic address: lifosk@hotmail.com., Alexiadou P; Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Athens, Greece., Koutouzi N; Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Athens, Greece., Frey S; Kyma Sea Conservation and Research, Zürich, Switzerland., Thompson KF; Biosciences, University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom; Greenpeace Research Laboratories, University of Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom., Boisseau O; Marine Conservation Research, Kelvedon, United Kingdom., Frantzis A; Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Athens, Greece.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Marine pollution bulletin [Mar Pollut Bull] 2023 Mar; Vol. 188, pp. 114701. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 08.
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114701
Abstrakt: Rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) form an isolated subpopulation in the Mediterranean Sea that resides only in the eastern basin. Due to the paucity of records, the conservation threats these dolphins face and their ecology and distribution are poorly understood. While most observations indicate that individuals are found in two isolated clusters in the eastern basin, we hereby present five observations -three visual, one acoustic and one stranding- that possibly extend the range of this subpopulation to the entire offshore waters of the eastern basin. The stomach content remains of the stranded individual revealed a diet based on epipelagic squids and octopods. The stranded dolphin had also consumed seven plastic bags and nine squid-like plastic fishing lures, which had caused a complete gastric blockage and probably led to the stranding. High pollution loads from macroplastics in the Mediterranean Sea may evolve into a new potential threat for this subpopulation.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: