Note First evidence of presence of plastic debris in stomach of large pelagic fish in the Mediterranean Sea Teresa Romeo a,⇑ , Battaglia Pietro a , Cristina Pedà a , Pierpaolo Consoli a , Franco Andaloro b , Maria Cristina Fossi c a ISPRA (Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), Laboratory of Milazzo, Via dei Mille 46, 98057 Milazzo, ME, Italy b ISPRA, Residence Marbela, via Salvatore Puglisi 9, 90143 Palermo, Italy c University of Siena, Department of Physical, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Italy article info Article history: Received 25 February 2015 Revised 22 April 2015 Accepted 25 April 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Marine litter Plastic ingestion Large pelagic fish Stomach content Mediterranean abstract This study focuses, for the first time, on the presence of plastic debris in the stomach contents of large pelagic fish (Xiphias gladius, Thunnus thynnus and Thunnus alalunga) caught in the Mediterranean Sea between 2012 and 2013. Results highlighted the ingestion of plastics in the 18.2% of samples. The plastics ingested were microplastics (<5 mm), mesoplastics (5–25 mm) and macroplastics (>25 mm). These preliminary results represent an important initial phase in exploring two main ecotoxicological aspects: (a) the assessment of the presence and impact of plastic debris on these large pelagic fish, and (b) the potential effects related to the transfer of contaminants on human health. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The presence of marine debris in the oceans is a growing prob- lem for the marine ecosystem’s health (Derraik, 2002) and the monitoring of this issue is, on the Mediterranean scale, one of the objectives of the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MFSD) (Galgani et al., 2013a, 2014). A recent study (Eriksen et al., 2014), estimated that 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing some 269,000 tons are floating on the surface of the sea. More recently (Seltenrich, 2015), plastics in consumer prod- ucts have become subject to increasing scrutiny regarding their potential effects on human health, through their presence in the food chain. Several studies highlighted the ubiquitous presence of plastic and other anthropogenic debris in marine habitats as well as its introduction in the marine food web through ingestion by several marine organisms, ranging from zooplankton to apex predators (Fossi et al., 2012, 2014; Cole et al., 2013; Ivar do Sul and Costa, 2014). The impact of debris ingestion by marine fauna is more evi- dent in those areas characterized by convergence currents, where litter is accumulated (Moore et al., 2001); although this phe- nomenon has larger proportion in some oceanic waters (e.g.: Boerger et al., 2010; Davison and Asch, 2011; Ingraham and Ebbesmeyer, 2001; Choy and Drazen, 2013; Lusher et al., 2013), plastic debris was also found in the guts of Mediterranean organ- isms such as turtles, teleosts, elasmobranches, cetacean, inverte- brates (e.g.: Lazar and Grac ˇan, 2011; Anastasopoulou et al., 2013; Deudero and Alomar, 2014). In the latter area, data on debris inges- tion mainly concerns cetaceans and turtles (Deudero and Alomar, 2014), whereas little information is available on fish, largely inferred by stomach content analysis (Deudero, 2001; Massutí et al., 1998; Madurell, 2003; Karakulak et al., 2009). These papers consist in dietary studies reporting also brief lists of debris found in the stomach content. Recently, Anastasopoulou et al. (2013) focuses for the first time on the study of debris ingested by fish (both elasmobranchs and teleosts) inhabiting the deep-waters of the Eastern Ionian Sea. The present paper investigates, for the first time, the occurrence of plastic debris in the stomach content of three large pelagic fish, which are top predators in the Central Mediterranean Sea: sword- fish Xiphias gladius Linnaeus 1758, bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus (L. 1758), albacore Thunnus alalunga (Bonnaterre, 1788). Considering the hazard associated to the transfer of chemicals from ingested debris to biota, this study provides an important contribution to the knowledge and understanding of plastic occurrence in these http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.048 0025-326X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: teresa.romeo@isprambiente.it (T. Romeo), pietro.battaglia@ isprambiente.it (B. Pietro), cristinapeda@gmail.com (C. Pedà), pierpaolo.consoli@ isprambiente.it (P. Consoli), franco.andaloro@isprambiente.it (F. Andaloro), fossi@unisi.it (M.C. Fossi). Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Please cite this article in press as: Romeo, T., et al. First evidence of presence of plastic debris in stomach of large pelagic fish in the Mediterranean Sea. Mar. Pollut. Bull. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.04.048