Detection of anthropogenic cellulose microfibers in Boops boops from the northern coasts of Sicily (Central Mediterranean)

Pollution deriving from textile wastes, including industrial and household waste, is recently of great interestdue to their environmental impacts. Anthropogenic and synthetic fibers are responsible for negative effectson the quality of water and soil, and, also, their presence damages plant and animal health. In thiswork, the authors revealed the occurrence of man-made cellulose fibers in specimens of Boops boopsfrom the Northern Sicilian coasts. Bogue was chosen as target species as it has been used as an indicatorwithin the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD 2008/56/EC) in order to value the"microplastics status" in the stomach contents. Of the 30 specimens examined, 63.3% of these had ingestedfibers items. The number of fibers ranged from 1 to 10 per specimenswith an average of 2.7 items/specimen.Fibers length ranged from 0.5 to 30 mm, most of them were black (95%), and a small percentage was red(5%).