Title: EFFECTS OF ACOUSTIC AND MICROPLASTIC POLLUTION ON THE DOLPHIN POPULATIONS OF THE ITALIAN SEA

Biography:

Luca Giovagnoli, graduated in Veterinary Medicine at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Parma. After 17 years as a veterinary clinic owner he went to work in England for about two years, where he collaborated with Prof. James Barret-ESI-PM Unit.
He collaborated with the National Research Council where under the guidance of Eng. M. Azzali( Acustic and Electronics) has conducted studies and research on the echolocation of small cetaceans and their language. He carried out the first census of cetaceans in the entire Adriatic Sea

Abstract

The work aims to evaluate the effects of noise and microplastic pollution on indigenous populations of dolphins in Italian seas. The effect of the airguns used in oil exploration and the increasingly incident maritime traffic are causing considerable damage to the species of dolphins present in our seas, in particular Bottlenose dolphins and Dolphins. The main cause of stranding of small cetaceans seems to be precisely the acoustic wetting. The anatomopathological analysis of the stranded bodies shows a strong level of pollution from microplastics which are constantly highlighted in the liver and reproductive organs. from studies carried out along all the Italian coasts, 77% of beached dolphins have very high quantities of microplastics in the muscles and reproductive organs. Since 2011, the quantities of microplastics found in beached dolphins have increased by 56%. The effect of microplastics and phthalates in the tissues of the reproductive systems causes a decrease in fertility and reproductive capacity. The  direct effect of anthropogenic activity, both as regards noise pollution and microplastics, is the main cause of the decrease of small cetaceans along the Italian coasts.
Biological competition with humans and the increase in fishing strenght seems to have become a completely secondary aspect to explain the decrease in the dolphins present in the Italian seas.