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Plastic Ingestion by Phocoena Phocoena and Tursiops Truncatus from the Black Sea

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Environmental Protection and Disaster Risks (EnviroRISKs 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems ((LNNS,volume 638))

Abstract

Stomach contents and intestines of two species of cetaceans from the superfamily toothed whales (Odontoceti), collected in the western part of the Black Sea during the period 2020–2021 were inspected for the presence of plastic particles. Microplastics (<5 mm) were found in all 2 bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus ssp. ponticus Barabash-Nikiforov, 1940) from the dolphin family (Delphinidae) and micro- and mesoplastics (5–25 mm) were found in 24 of 29 harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena ssp. relicta Abel, 1905) from the porpoise family (Phocoenidae). A total of 197 plastic particles were recorded in 26 individuals (84% of all individuals examined, 21 of 25 female and 5 of 6 male animals). The average number of plastic particles per cetacean was 6.35 ± 6.92 par.ind., ranged 0 to 25 per individual. The most common type of plastic identified were fibres (43%) and fragments (36%). The most frequent plastic colour recognized was grey, blue and black.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by the Project Upgrading of distributed scientific infrastructure - Bulgarian Network for Long-Term Ecosystem Research (LTER-BG), (agreement with Ministry of Education and Science, DO1-405/18.12.2020); CeNoBS – Support MSFD implementation in the Black Sea through establishing a regional monitoring system of cetaceans (D1) and noise monitoring (D11) for achieving GES, Contract N-110661/2018/794677/S, DG ENV. C2 MSFD and by “Monitoring and mitigation of cetacean bycatch in Bulgarian waters” project funded by ACCOBAMS Supplementary Conservation Fund, MoU14/2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Oceanology – BAS, 40 First of May Str., 9000, Varna, Bulgaria

    Svetlana Mihova, Valentina Doncheva, Kremena Stefanova, Elitsa Stefanova & Marina Panayotova

  2. Green Balkans NGO, 1 Skopje Str., 4000, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

    Dimitar Popov

Authors
  1. Svetlana Mihova
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  2. Valentina Doncheva
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  3. Kremena Stefanova
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  4. Elitsa Stefanova
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  5. Dimitar Popov
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  6. Marina Panayotova
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Correspondence to Svetlana Mihova .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Nina Dobrinkova

  2. Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Orlin Nikolov

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Mihova, S., Doncheva, V., Stefanova, K., Stefanova, E., Popov, D., Panayotova, M. (2023). Plastic Ingestion by Phocoena Phocoena and Tursiops Truncatus from the Black Sea. In: Dobrinkova, N., Nikolov, O. (eds) Environmental Protection and Disaster Risks. EnviroRISKs 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 638. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26754-3_26

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26754-3_26

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