A series of surveys in coastal Australia, Bay of Bengal and the Mediterranean Sea estimates that a minimum of 5.25 trillion plastic particles weighing over 260 000 tons are afloat at sea in the world’s oceans (Eriksen et al., In the Mediterranean Sea, plastic debris has been found in the stomachs of 18% of swordfish, bluefin tuna and albacore (Romeo et al., Due to their small size, microplastics may be ingested by low trophic fauna, with uncertain consequences for the health of organisms (Wright et al.,