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• Data di creazione 11 Agosto 2025
• Ultimo aggiornamento 11 Agosto 2025

Evidence of macroplastic ingestion in the lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula from the central Tyrrhenian Sea

Plastic pollution has dramatically increased worldwide and the ingestion of plastic litters by marine organisms represents a serious problem due to their potentially adverse effects. The lesser spotted dogfish Scyliorhinus canicula is one of the most abundant demersal and deep-water sharks in the Mediterranean Sea and despite it is widely distributed and it is an opportunistic predator, evidence of plastic ingestion in this species from the Mediterranean Sea is little documented. This short communication contributes to the known few available data on the ingestion of macroplastic in the lesser spotted dogfish from the Mediterranean Sea. Stomach contents of 75 S. canicula collected at 150 m deep in the central Tyrrhenian Sea during 2017 & 2018 were observed and two macroplastic pieces were extracted from two different samples and visually analyzed. This little evidence confirms again that both the lesser spotted dogfish in the Mediterranean Sea is exposed to plastic ingestion and the deep sea could be a natural sink for these plastic particles.