Assessment of anthropogenic particles in Holothuria sanctori from Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain).

Sea cucumbers play a key role in maintaining the health of coastal marine ecosystems. The aim of this research was to evaluate the presence of anthropogenic particles in sea cucumbers of the species Holothuria sanctori in intertidal pools from Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) and in the surrounding seawater. In the case of sea cucumbers (n = 18), the gastrointestinal tract (particles ingested directly from the sediment) and Cuvierian tubules (particles presence as a result of gas exchange with seawater) were analysed separately. Anthropogenic particles were found in all samples, with an average concentration of 20.0 ± 4.4 items per litre in seawater and 11.8 ± 3.9 items per individual in the sea cucumbers, with a higher concentration of particles in the gastrointestinal tract (9.3 ± 3.4 items per gastrointestinal tract) than in the Cuvierian tubules (2.6 ± 3.3 items per Cuvierian tubules). Transparent and blue microfibres were predominant, accounting for over 90 % of the samples analysed. A significant proportion of these fibres were of cellulosic origin (either natural or semisynthetic, comprising 78.7 %), while fully synthetic polymers (microplastics), were also identified, including polyester and polyvinyl chloride (the latter exclusively detected in seawater).

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Cintia Hernández-Sánchez reports financial support was provided by Cabildo de La Palma. Javier González-Sálamo reports financial support was provided by Canary Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI) for the Viera y Clavijo contract at the Universidad de La Laguna. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.