First assessment of floating marine litter abundance and distribution in the Bay of Biscay from an integrated ecosystem survey.

In the Bay of Biscay, regional monitoring programmes and data on abundance and distribution of floating marine litter are scarce, contrary to many other European marine regions. Here, a joint analysis of multiyear observations (2017-2019) of floating micro and macrolitter and oceanographic conditions was conducted for the Bay of Biscay by combining microlitter samplings with neuston nets and vessel-based macrolitter observations. Results show spatiotemporal abundance and distribution patterns.

Incidence of plastic ingestion in seabirds from the Bay of Biscay (southwestern Europe).

Seabirds have been widely used to monitor marine debris by the analysis of plastic ingestion. With the aim of obtaining the first data on ingestion of plastics by different seabird species in the Bay of Biscay and evaluating their suitability as biomonitors of plastic pollution in this area, a total of 159 seabirds of fifteen species were analyzed. Plastics were found in 26 birds (16% of the individuals) of nine species (60% of the species).