First sighting of a pelagic seabird entangled in a disposable COVID-19 facemask in the Mediterranean Sea

Levantine Sea; Marine Birds; Marine Ecosystem; marine litter; pandemic-related debris; personal protective equipment (PPE); Puffinus yelkouan; Yelkouan Shearwater; Oceanography; Environmental Engineering; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Aquatic Science

Abstract :

[en] Seabirds are increasingly recognized as important bio-indicators of marine ecosystems that are useful in assessing environmental disturbance on the marine biota. Over the period 2020-22 and during the first national systematic recording of the sea waters surrounding the Republic of Cyprus, we recorded the spatio-temporal presence, abundance and behaviour of seabirds using the ESAS (European Seabirds At Sea) methodology. Here we present the observation of an accidentally entangled pelagic seabird in COVID-19 material which to the best of our knowledge is the first incident in the Mediterranean Basin. The systematic recording of entangled marine birds in personal protective equipment (PPE) used to prevent COVID-19 transmission worldwide seems to be of crucial importance for one of the most important emerging threats for the conservation of seabirds at global scale

Disciplines :

Environmental sciences & ecology
Aquatic sciences & oceanology

Author, co-author :

Karris, Georgios ; Department of Environment, Ionian University, Greece ; ADENS-Advanced Environmental Studies S.A. Vas., Athens, Greece

Savva, Ioannis ; Marine & Environmental Research (MER) Lab, Limassol, Cyprus ; Department of Maritime Civilizations, The Leon H. Charney School for Marine Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Kakalis, Eleftherios ; ENVIR-Environmental Research Services, Folegandros, Greece

Bairaktaridou, Kyriaki ; ENVIR-Environmental Research Services, Folegandros, Greece

Espinosa, Chloé ; Department of Environment, Ionian University, Greece ; Laboratory of Oceanology, MARE Centre, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

Smith, Matthew Stephen ; ENVIR-Environmental Research Services, Folegandros, Greece

Botsidou, Petroula ; ENVIR-Environmental Research Services, Folegandros, Greece

Moschous, Stamatios ; ENVIR-Environmental Research Services, Folegandros, Greece

Voulgaris, Marios-Dimitrios ; ENVIR-Environmental Research Services, Folegandros, Greece

Peppa, Eleni ; ADENS-Advanced Environmental Studies S.A. Vas., Athens, Greece

More authors (3 more)

Language :

English

Title :

First sighting of a pelagic seabird entangled in a disposable COVID-19 facemask in the Mediterranean Sea

Publication date :

2023

Journal title :

Mediterranean Marine Science

ISSN :

1108-393X

eISSN :

1791-6763

Publisher :

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

50 - 55

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/hcmr-med-mar-sc/article/download/31918/24974

Funding text :

This study was funded by “Operational Programme ‘Thalassa’ 2014-2020”, financed by the European Maritime Fisheries Fund (EMFF) 2014-2020 under Tender number 13/2020 ‘Seabird surveys in the Marine Waters of Cyprus’ and the Republic of Cyprus. We are very grateful to the skippers and crew of the Marine & Environmental Research (MER) Lab of Cyprus for their assistance during onboard surveys, as well as to Maria Christou and Panagiota Santikou for their contribution to seabird observations and to Athina Kokkali for preparation of the map. Lastly, we also thank three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments

Available on ORBi :

since 20 March 2024

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