Plastics in Marine Fish fromthe Eastern Pacific: a Review
Keywords:
bioplastics, effects, America, Eastern Pacific, elasmobranchs, teleostsAbstract
This study aims to give a general view of the plastics of varying sizes in elasmobranchs and teleosts from the Eastern Pacific Ocean and discuss the use of bioplastics as a potential alternative to the use of plastics derived from petroleum. We included studies in fish from the western coasts of America (FAO fishing areas: Pacific northeast-PNE, Pacific Eastern Central-PEC, and Pacific southeast-PSE). The number of elasmobranch specimens with plastics in studies from the Eastern Pacific was 361 (165 in the PEC and 196 in the PSE) with particle sizes from 0.008 mm to 25.5 cm. The number of teleosts with plastic content in the Eastern Pacific was 5,943 (2,946 in the PNE, 2,615 in PEC, and 382 in the PSE) with sizes from 10 µm to 19.86 mm. Bioplastics may be a beneficial choice over petroplastics due to their lower carbon footprint, lower energy requirement for their manufacturing, no use of crude oil, reduction of litter, and faster degradation time.
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