Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Plastics occurrence in the gastrointestinal tract of Zeus faber and Lepidopus caudatus from the Tyrrhenian Sea Teresa Bottari a,b , Serena Savoca c , Monique Mancuso a,b , Gioele Capillo c , Giuseppe GiuseppePanarello c , Martina MartinaBonsignore c , Rosalia Crupi c , Marilena Sanfilippo c , Luisa D'Urso d , Giuseppe Compagnini d , Fortunato Neri e , Teresa Romeo b,f , Gian Marco Luna a,g , Nunziacarla Spanò h, ⁎ , Enza Fazio e a Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (IRBIM) – CNR, Spianata San Raineri 86, 98122 Messina, Italy b Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Centro Interdipartimentale della Sicilia, Italy c Department of Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, University of Messina, Viale Ferdinando Stagno D'Alcontres 31, 98166 Messina, Italy d Department of Chemical Science, University of Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, Catania 95125, Italy e Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences, Physical Science and Earth Science, Messina University, 98166 Messina, Italy f Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, ISPRA, 98057, Milazzo (ME), Italy g Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnology (IRBIM) – CNR, Section of Ancona, Largo Fiera della Pesca, 60125 Ancona, Italy h Department of Biomedical, Dental and Morphological and Functional Imaging University of Messina, Via Consolare Valeria, Messina, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Microplastics Mesoplastic Edible fish Fibers Teleosts Micro-Raman spectroscopy ABSTRACT 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: poly- propylene (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 phe- nomenon. 1. Introduction Plastic debris is widespread in many environments and have been reported in all marine environments including sea surface, water column, sea floor from coastal to deep sea areas (Andrady, 2011; Avio et al., 2017; Consoli et al., 2018a, 2018b; Van Cauwenberghe et al., 2013). This type of pollution is considered one of the major global threats for marine environment (Bessa et al., 2018), being plastic characterized by very low degradation rates in situ and by the ability to transport adhered pollutants. The most frequent polymers found in the marine environment are polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), poly- styrene (PS), polyvinylchloride (PVC), polyamide (PA), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) (Avio et al., 2017). Every year large amounts of plastic debris enter the ocean from land-based sources (Ryan et al., 2009), but also from maritime activities such as fishing (that contributes with materials lost by both professional and recreational fishing), and debris dumped by commercial, cruise or private ships that may cause debris to be dumped into the sea (Cooper and Corcoran, 2010). The mass of land-based plastic waste that enters the ocean has been recently estimated to be in the range of 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons per year (Jambeck et al., 2015). Once in the sea, plastics denser than seawater (e.g. PVC) will sink, while those with lower density (e.g. PE and PP) will tend to float in the water column. Biofouling and colonization by organisms on the plastic surface increase the weight of particles, thus accelerating their sinking to the bottom (Lobelle and Cunliffe, 2011; Quero and Luna, 2018; Ye and Andrady, 1991). The degradation rates of microplastics depend on the typology, presence of chemical additives, temperature and oxygen availability. Coupled with physical abrasions, such as mechanical action of waves and sand, degradation leads to embrittlement and fragmentation (da Costa et al., 2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.07.003 Received 29 May 2019; Received in revised form 1 July 2019; Accepted 1 July 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: spano@unime.it (N. Spanò). Marine Pollution Bulletin 146 (2019) 408–416 0025-326X/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd. T