Plastic ingestion by blue shark Prionace glauca in the South Pacific Ocean (south of the Peruvian Sea)

César Fernández; Aikaterini Anastasopoulou

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110501

Plastic ingestion by blue shark Prionace glauca in the South Pacific Ocean (south of the Peruvian Sea)

Mar Pollut Bull. 2019 Dec:149:110501. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110501. Epub 2019 Aug 13.

Authors

César Fernández¹, Aikaterini Anastasopoulou²

Affiliations

¹ Laboratorio de Ecología Trófica, Instituto del Mar del Perú, Esquina Gamarra y General Valle S/N Chucuito Callao, Peru. Electronic address: cfernandez@imarpe.gob.pe.
² Hellenic Center for Marine Research, Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Water, 46.7 Km Athens Sounio, Mavro Lithari, P.O. Box. 19013, Anavissos, Attica, Greece. Electronic address: kanast@hcmr.gr.

PMID: 31421567
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.110501

Abstract

The present study documented for the first time data on plastic ingestion by Prionace glauca in the South Pacific Ocean, south of the Peruvian Sea. In total, 136 individuals were studied between 2015 and 2016. Their size ranged from 61.5 to 255.0 cm TL. Pieces of plastic bags were found in the stomach contents, corresponding to the 2.2% of the individuals. The mean number of ingested plastics was 0.02. The polymer type identified by FT-IR for the pieces of plastics bags was polyethylene.

Keywords: Blue sharks; Ingested plastics; Litter; Peruvian Sea.

MeSH terms

Animals
Eating*
Gastrointestinal Contents / chemistry*
Pacific Ocean
Peru
Polyethylene / analysis*
Sharks / metabolism*
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Polyethylene