Drifting plastic debris as a potential vector for dispersing Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) species

Over the past 50 years, there has been an increase in the record of plastic pollution in the world's oceans and its negative impact on the marine environment.The problems are not only aesthetic, as many fish, birds, turtles and mammals become entangled in or ingest plastic debris (see Marine Pollution Bulletin 18, 1987).Likewise, a relationship between drifting plastic debris and the expanding distribution of non-indigenous marine invertebrates has been established (Winston, 1982; Minchin, 1986, Barnes 2002).Major inputs of plastics to the ocean are from land (rivers and drainage systems), ship-generated litter and beachgoers (Pruter, 1987).In the Mediterranean, plastic pollution is very high due to maritime activities, tourism and growing human demography (Morris, 1980;Gabrielides et al., 1991;Galgani et al., 1995).Along the Catalan coast (northwestern Mediterranean) in the period 1995-2000, plastic ranged between 23 and 42% of the floating litter volume (organic matter, wood, oil, glass, paper and cloth) collected by cleaning ships.Floating plastics were always the most abundant