2PhD, Laboratory of Nutrition, Health and Environment, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra 14000, Morocco
The economic impact of marine waste on fishing yield
Study of the phenomenon of ingestion of microplastic in fish in the Mediterranean Sea, Morocco
Keywords: Impact; ingestion; microplastic; Diplodus cervinus; Auxis thazard; yield;
It also includes major threats at the present to marine biodiversity the effects of climate change, ocean acidification, invasive species, overfishing and other extractive activities, pollution and marine debris, habitat degradation, fragmentation and loss, human population expansion, tourism, and the impact of a wide range of human activities in the coastal zone [37,42,55,61]. Approximately 75% is plastic in nature but to a dynamic force nature of the ocean and sea surface, and the large area involved, it is also difficult to know where the debris accumulates, and thus where it will cause the greatest impacts [45,72].
There are many impacts of marine debris on humans, the marine ecosystem, and economically. In 2008 alone, they were estimated at $ 1.26 billion per year for the 21 Asian and Pacific economies [53]. These costs appear from a number of different sources. Wastes can directly damage ships participating in leisure, transport or fishing. In addition to the direct damage to ships as a result of marine debris barriers, hidden nets and other fishing gear can have implications for fish industries by reducing levels of target stocks, prey and habitat damage [52]. The debris can also be detrimental to the tourism industry by reducing or altering beach visits, as well as potential losses of private sector investment in dirty or contaminated areas [9,63]. Direct impacts on human health can result from abandoned sharp tools, marine interactions between ships and large floating debris [77] and are likely to cause exposure to biphenyls, phthalates and other plastic additives [81]. The direct implications to wildlife fall under many main categories; poisoning of chemicals in marine wastes, Suffocation, entanglement, and ingestion, though debris can also indirectly impact marine life through alteration of habitat and transport of invasive species [10,69]. Over 660 species are recorded to have been affected by marine debris entanglement or ingestion [45]. About 15% of the species affected through entanglement and ingestion are on the IUCN Red List. Of particular concern are dangerous the Extinction [59,83]. Undirected impacts macro and micro plastic is not an inert material, and on top of its own toxicity it has the potential to agglomerate and transport Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in the forms of Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), Hexa chlorocyclo hexane (HCH), and the pesticide Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane (DDT) [20,43,73].
More than studies have shown that marine life, including seabirds, sea turtles, fish, marine mammals, sharks, and plastic eating [5,8,11,17,21]. resulting in a lot of physiological and chemical damage Where leads ingestion micro debris to suffocation or gastrointestinal obstruction then die As the case with albatross birds which died most cases Because of the false sense of fullness, They also found large numbers of dead fulmars fish due to ingested her the micro wastes, additionally the nanoplastic which leads to Inhibiting photosynthesis in algae [6,14,15,16,18,23,76,84,86]. Countries also suffer from economic damage caused by marine wastes such as the financial cost of cleaning the coastline is very expensive as well as the low yield of fishing (Association Mer Terre). Lost fishing gear threatens marine life. Comprehensive data on ghost fishing impacts are not available, but entanglement in or ingestion of, human caused debris (including fishing gear and many other items) has been reported for over 250 marine species and the emergence of many marine wastes in fishing nets when they are released from the sea [47,60].
The quantity of waste M’diq indeed, 55 tons per day in normal period. In summer, it is increased to more than 90 tons per day. Studies are currently underway for the delegation of this service to the private sector [31]. Fishing is developed all along the coast of Tetouan and catches are landed especially in the port of M’diq, the rest at the new landing point of Fnideq. Fishing activity constitutes at the local level an economic pole of paramount importance because of the number of fishing units and the quantities landed. It is also very important in terms of employment; it occupies about 20% of the active population. The sector generates significant revenues for trawlers, purse seiners, long liners and 400 fishing boats [13].
Scientific classification |
Auxis thazard |
Diplodus cervinus |
Kingdom |
Animalia |
Animalia |
Phylum |
Chordata |
Chordata |
Class |
Actinopterygii |
Actinopterygii |
Order |
Perciformes |
Perciformes |
Family |
Scombridae |
Sparidae |
Subfamily |
Scombrinae |
- |
Tribe |
Thunnini |
- |
Genus |
Auxis |
Diplodus |
species |
- |
D. cervinus |
Subspecies |
A. thazard thazard |
- |
Trinomial name |
Binomial name |
|
Auxis thazard thazard |
Diplodus cervinus |
The next step is to dissect the fish, producing a longitudinal incision along the belly of the fish, cutting the skin and muscles with the chisel from the mouth to the anus. Stopping at 1cm from the end of the jaw, without damaging the underlying organs, the fish is fully opened at the posterior end of the ventral opening until to incise the dorsal muscle. The same incision should be made just behind the operculum. Once opened, the viscera are extricated; the stomach is opened and emptied of its contents into a Petri dish previously washed and filled with distilled water in order to make a first sort of small waste that can float on the surface of the water, then empty the contents using a filter with a diameter of less than 1 mm and the suspended solids trapped on the filter are transferred to a petri dish for examination under a microscope, in search of small plastic parts and placed in a closed glass case got. The data obtained was transformed and formatted with the Excel program in order to subsequently convert them into graphs; and illustrate the changes and relationships between samples, then analyze them using statistical tests using SPSS programs (Figure 3).
This species is present in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans. It is considered vagrant in the Mediterranean Sea. However, there are only a few records of this species in the Atlantic as most of the Auxis in the Atlantic are Auxis rochei. The Eastern Pacific population is recognized as a subspecies, Auxis thazard brachydorax [19], which occurs from California to the mouth of the Gulf of California to Peru, and all the oceanic islands except Clipperton [70]. In the Mediterranean, this is a common species in fisheries and abundance changes from place to place every year [30]. This is a pelagic, oceanodromous species that is also epipelagic in neritic and oceanic waters [25]. Adults are coastal or near-coastal, while juveniles are more widely spread throughout the world’s ocean. It feeds on small fish, squids, planktonic crustaceans (megalops), and stomatopod larvae. Because of their abundance, they are considered an important element of the food web, particularly as forage for other species of commercial interest. It is preyed upon by larger fishes, including other tunas and billfishes. Average estimated length-age relationships in the equatorial Atlantic are 22.9 cm at one year, 30.4 cm at two years, 36.7 cm at three years and 40.4 cm at four years [40]. This species of fish is also listed in the red list [46,82]. During our work, from thirty samples of Auxis thazard mackerel (Melva) were dissected, three showed a microplastic existence in the stomach. Despite the ingestion of plastic pellets, with a stomach full of food. At thirty samples of Auxis thazard thazard it was the length mean for fish 38,833 cm, and the wiegth it was 1138 g (Figure 5).
The ingestion of plastic may be direct or indirect; [26] directly from floating debris on the sea surface or in a water column, or from marine waste on the seafloor, and indirectly ingestion can take place as a result of feeding based on small fish or plankton that contain plastic debris. Ten percent of the overall total for the fish that were studied ingested microplastic waste. Studies have shown that marine life; including sea birds, sea turtles, fish, marine mammals, and sharks, eat plastic (Figure 6).
The occurrence of microplastic ingestion in marine environments has been well documented with a surge in research since 2000. Percent occurrences of plastics in the stomach contents of marine fishes range from 2.6% in the North Sea to 37% in the English Channel Reports from other areas include Brazilian estuaries and North Pacific Gyre [14,17,27,50,65].
In a study by a group of researchers in the Gulf of Mexico, Plastics were detected in 12 individuals (10.4%). Percent occurrences by plastic type were 3.8% for filament plastics, 2.6% for fragment plastics, and 2.6% for film plastics for all fishes. Percent occurrences by location were 5.9% in harbor fishes, 13.5% in the bay fishes and 22% in the offshore fishes. The maximum number within a stomach was 4 for filament plastics, 2 for fragment plastics, and 6 for film plastics. Among the 12 individuals with a plastic item, 6(50%) contained at least two plastic types and 3(33%) contained three plastic types. Percent occurrence within the benthic invertivore–carnivore trophic guild was 12% also a total of 419 freshwater fishes were examined, representing 44 species and 12 families. Plastics were detected in 34 individuals (8.2%) from urban and non-urbanized streams. Percent occurrence was 1.3% for filament plastics, 2.7% for fragment plastics, and 3.1% for film plastics for all. Although percent occurrences were low, occurrences of microplastic ingestion were ubiquitous among all water bodies, taxonomic groups, and trophic guilds quantified in this study, sparida and scrompida they was of samples which Included by the study [54].
Plastic ingestion by marine organisms is commonly reported as “mistaken identity” consumption because of its similarity to natural prey. This hypothesis is well supported in the case of sea turtles ingesting clear plastic items (e.g., plastic bags floating in the water) due to their 3D shapes and movements that are similar to jellyfish [74]. Many species of seabirds have also been found with high concentrations of micro-plastic (transparent or colored) debris in their digestive tracts, which were apparently mistaken for potential prey (e.g., fish eggs, plankton) [7,47]. Nylon ingestion by estuarine fish during suction feeding in sediments could reflect their resemblance to polychaetes [65] or to the consumption of organisms aggregated to plastic debris (mixed with natural prey items) [66]. For large fish Recent hypotheses concerning the consumption of plastic debris have considered different aspects of their predatory feeding behaviors, including opportunist strategies, accidental ingestion during feeding strikes, or the ingestion of aggregated prey items [12,71].
The microplastic which existed in fish’s stomach it was a group of fragment, pellets, and lines ranging in size between 0.5 - 4 mm, maybe exist pellets because the region near to industrial towns Tangier, Martil and a new port Tanger Med, and Sewage discharge to the sea water in M’diq Undoubtedly, much of the sea debris at the bottom of the sea will produce a lot of small marine debris as a result of decomposition and ingested microplastic by fish’s. at new study 32 of fish specimens belonging 11 species and 9 families, Plastic pellets were found in the stomachs of 7 individuals (22%) of two species: the king mackerel, Scomberomorus cavalla (Scombridae), (Carcharhinidae) [28]. with sizes ranging from 2 to 5 mm in their longest dimension [26]. The plastic pellets had circular shapes, and colors ranging from clear to white, and yellowish (Figure 7).
N° |
Fishs weight (g) |
Wastes wieght (g) |
1 |
42000 |
1300 |
2 |
32000 |
1500 |
3 |
30000 |
1100 |
4 |
18000 |
600 |
5 |
1000 |
2000 |
6 |
1200 |
200 |
7 |
200 |
150 |
8 |
1500 |
120 |
9 |
1000 |
250 |
10 |
7000 |
200 |
11 |
8000 |
2000 |
12 |
5000 |
800 |
13 |
3500 |
300 |
14 |
2500 |
700 |
15 |
38000 |
3500 |
16 |
150 |
0 |
17 |
950 |
60 |
18 |
550 |
50 |
19 |
8000 |
200 |
20 |
2500 |
0 |
21 |
25000 |
180 |
22 |
8500 |
0 |
23 |
950 |
300 |
24 |
2500 |
230 |
25 |
70000 |
420 |
26 |
2000 |
120 |
27 |
16000 |
890 |
28 |
170 |
0 |
29 |
3700 |
160 |
30 |
14500 |
940 |
Correlations |
|||||
Weigth (g) |
stomach |
ingestion |
especies |
||
Weigth(g) |
Pearson Correlation |
1 |
.279* |
-0.141 |
.561** |
Sig. (2-tailed) |
0.031 |
0.284 |
0 |
||
N |
60 |
60 |
60 |
||
code stomach |
Pearson Correlation |
1 |
.499** |
-0.121 |
|
Sig. (2-tailed) |
0 |
0.357 |
|||
N |
60 |
60 |
|||
code ingestion |
Pearson Correlation |
1 |
0.052 |
||
Sig. (2-tailed) |
, |
0.694 |
|||
N |
60 |
||||
Code species |
Pearson Correlation |
1 |
|||
Sig. (2-tailed) |
|||||
N |
|||||
*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). |
|||||
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). |
|
Fishs wieght (g) |
Wastes wieght (g) |
Plastic |
Metal |
Glass |
Rubber |
Paper Lumber |
Cloth |
Fishs weight (g) Pearson correlation |
1 |
.427 * |
.145 |
.057 |
b |
.239 |
544** |
.006 |
Wastes weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
1 |
.251 |
.488* |
b |
.336 |
.603** |
.657** |
Plastic weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
|
1 |
.224 |
b |
.196 |
.118 |
.196 |
Metal weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
|
|
1 |
b |
.351 |
.035 |
.351 |
Glass weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
|
|
|
1 |
b |
b |
b |
Rubber weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
.015 |
.135 |
Paper weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
.247 |
Cloth weight (g) Pearson correlation |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
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