title: Lethal lesions and amputation caused by plastic debris and fishing gear on the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus, 1758). Three case reports from Terceira Island, Azores (NE Atlantic).
abstract: In this note we report and discuss three cases involving two serious injuries and one death on three specimens of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta, found in Terceira Island, Azores (NE Atlantic). Plastic debris and lost/discarded fishing gear caused these accidents. In fact, these types of marine litter are known to cause several accidents all over the world involving many taxa. However, we think that this issue has probably a much wider impact and detected cases such as those reported here are but just a small sample of the whole unknown dimension of this serious marine pollution problem.
authors: Azorean Biodiversity Group (CITA-A) and Platform for Enhancing Ecological Research & Sustainability (PEERS), Universidade dos Açores, 9700-042 Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal. Electronic address: joaopedro@uac.pt.
authors: João P
authors: JP
authors: Barreiros
authors: Institute of Oceanology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 40 parvi mai str., 9000 Varna, Bulgaria. Electronic address: vraykov@io-bas.bg.
authors: Violin S
authors: VS
authors: Raykov
mesh_terms: D000673:Amputation, Traumatic; D000818:Animals; D001267:Atlantic Ocean; D001394:Azores; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D062312:Islands; D010969:Plastics; D014426:Turtles / Q000293:injuries*; D014866:Waste Products; D014873:Water Pollutants
chemical_list: D010969:Plastics; D014866:Waste Products; D014873:Water Pollutants
keywords: Entanglement; Fatal lesions; Marine litter; Oceanic pollution