A new threat: assessing the main interactions between marine fish and plastic debris from a scientometric perspective

Abstract

Impacts generated by plastic pollution constitute one of the most significant challenges that humanity must face in the next century, receiving increasing attention from the society at large. Thus, quantifying the state of knowledge concerning organisms affected by plastic debris is extremely important to understand threats to marine species. In this context, this study aimed to review and quantify published data on which marine fish species have been reported as interacting with plastic waste through a scientometric analysis carried out on the Web of Science, Scopus and Scielo databases, using a combination of keywords and Boolean operators. Despite no results for Agnatha, Holocephali and Sarcopterygii, this survey registered 116 documents reporting high intake and low entanglement interactions for 310 teleost species and 33 Elasmobranchs. The results indicate increased knowledge production after 2012, reporting a diversity of debris colors, shapes and materials distributed throughout the globe, but with greater research efforts performed in the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean and Black Seas. This study provides analyses, perspectives and suggestions for future assessments, gathering information and seeking to better understand the issue concerning these debris, which represent another threat to the fauna of the world’s oceans.