Ezio Amato | ISPRA - ROME ITALY (original) (raw)

Videos by Ezio Amato

War residuals and ordnance have been dumped in every sea and ocean of the world, acting as an haz... more War residuals and ordnance have been dumped in every sea and ocean of the world, acting as an hazard for fishermen and as a source of noxious molecules for marine ecosystems.
The RED COD (Research on Environmental Damage caused by Chemical ordnance dumped at sea) project has looked at these themes, in order to contribute, with data and informations, to the need to remediate the "submerged" consequences of conflicts and arsenals renewal.

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In year 2009, based on the accounts of a mafia boss that in 1992 took part in the sinking of a ve... more In year 2009, based on the accounts of a mafia boss that in 1992 took part in the sinking of a vessel loaded with toxic and radioactive waste offshore Cetraro harbour, the Italian deputed authorities launched a research on a deep seafloor area. The shipwreck that was found and surveyed, supposed to be one among more than 30 vessels allegedly sunk by the mob in the Mediterranean Sea, revealed being the steamship "Catania", sunk in y 1917 by a German u-boot in an act of war. While exploring the remains of the deck at -500 m, I wondered noticing, on a few spots bunches of tubeworms. Thus, igniting the crew creativity, in its last dive, the ROV arms were provided with a chair transformed in a basket to collect some of them. The following day the sample was dissected in laboratory discovering the first record of Lamellibrachia in the Western Mediterranean. They are gutless marine annelids which are nutritionally dependent upon endosymbiotic bacteria

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Papers by Ezio Amato

In order to gain preliminary knowledge about the threat to marine ecosystems due to leakage of ch... more In order to gain preliminary knowledge about the threat to marine ecosystems due to leakage of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and other pollutants from rusting bombshells on the seabed, a case study was conducted in a dumping area in the southern Adriatic Sea (depth 200–300 m). Following electroacoustic and magnetometric surveys of the CWA dumping area, an integrated ecotoxicological approach was used. This approach was based on analysis of CWA residues and their metabolites, including arsenic, in sediment and organisms, as well as multimarker methodology including the Health Assessment Index, histological lesion analysis and enzyme assays. Two sentinel species were selected, the blackbelly rosefish [Helicolenus dactylopterus (Delaroche, 1809)] and the European conger (Conger conger L., 1758). Sediment analysis revealed the presence of CWA degradation products, including 1-4-thioxane and 1-4-dithiane. Tissues of fish from the CWA dumping site showed higher levels of arsenic than those from the reference site. Neither CWAs nor their metabolites were detected in fish tissues. Arsenic levels recorded in blackbelly rosefish were well above those reported for other fish species from the southern Adriatic, much higher than the FDA limit for food (2.6 mg kg1) and close to the LD50 calculated for mammals (20 mg kg1 body weight). The presence of pollutants in the CWA dumping site was also confirmed by pathological lesions in both species and EROD activity, two to three times higher than in fish from the reference site (16.45±8.08 and 8.05±5.87 pmol min1 mg protein1 in blackbelly rosefish and 269±24.92 and 78.71 pmol min1 mg protein 1 in European conger, respectively). Cholinesterase activity seemed unaffected in muscle of both species, whereas in brain they were one-third of those recorded in fish from the reference site (14.22±10.05 and 72.87 nmol min1 mg protein1, respectively). This suggests that acetylcholinesterase is sensitive to CWAs. In conclusion, the agreement of all the chemical and biological parameters investigated suggests that the integrated ecotoxicological approach used is appropriate to reveal the presence and biological effects of CWAs in the marine ecosystem