The AZTI Foundation has launched a project to quantify the presence of microplastics in marine predators in the Bay of Biscay.

The AZTI Foundation has launched the project “Incidence and quantification of microplastics in marine predators in the Bay of Biscay” in order to assess the presence of these toxic particles in seabirds and fish in the eastern Cantabrian Sea. This initiative is one of the beneficiary projects of the call for grants from the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment in collaboration with Ecoembes for the fight against marine litter.

AZTI will work together with local entities and NGOs to collect specimens of several species of seabirds, quantify the amount of microplastics they have ingested and, finally, determine the biological indicators, such as sex or maturity, associated with the presence of these particles.

The study of ingested plastics is one of the innovations provided by the project, as well as the monitoring of alternative species to those previously studied, thanks to which it will be possible to know in depth how microplastics affect birds and fish in the demarcation of the Bay of Biscay. In addition, the results will allow the development of a standard protocol for the first time that will serve as the basis for future studies.

The project will end in November 2017 with the dissemination of the results through different channels, which will allow both experts and society to know the environmental quality of the coasts of northern Spain and the toxicity of microplastics in marine species.

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive includes the presence of marine litter as one of the descriptors to assess the environmental status of the coastline and, among them, microplastics are included, which reflects the importance of this problem for the conservation and management of the marine environment. In addition, birds represent one of the most threatened groups of marine predators, given that their populations have declined by 70% between 1950 and 2010.