Ingestion of plastic debris by commercially important marine fish in southeast-south Brazil

Abstract

Rising concentrations of plastics in the oceans are leading to increasing negative interactions with marine biota, including ingestion by endangered and/or economically important seafood species such as fish. In this paper, we visually evaluated plastic debris ingestion by 965 specimens of eight commercially exploited fish species from different marine habitats off the southeast-south coast of Brazil. All species ingested plastics, with pelagic animals having higher amounts, frequency of occurrence, diversity and sizes of ingested items than demersal-pelagic and demersal animals. Highest frequency of occurrence (FO%) of plastic ingestion (25.8%) was observed for the pelagic skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis (Scombridae), and lowest (5%) for the demersal bluewing searobin Prionotus punctatus (Triglidae). Microplastics predominated in all species, and fibers/lines and fragments were the main items found, possibly derived from fishing materials. The most abundant plastic colors were transparent, black and blue, and the most common polymers were polyamide and polyurethane. With the available data, no relationship between the size of the individuals and amount of ingested plastics was observed. Considering the negative impacts of plastic ingestion on marine fish, and potentially on human health due to their consumption, understanding ingestion patterns is critical for better evaluating their origin and possible causes, and consequently for helping define prevention strategies for this problem.

Micro and Nanoplastics Identification: Classic Methods and Innovative Detection Techniques

“…However, in this case, the sample would no longer be usable for other analyses, e.g., EDS or FT-IR. Several studies utilized conventional SEM to visualize MPs in different matrices: sewage sludge (Mahon et al, 2017), mussels (Li et al, 2018a), sediments (Wang and Wang, 2018;Shruti et al, 2019;Neto et al, 2020), and sand (Tiwari et al, 2019). Naji et al (2019) adopted, as an alternative to SEM, the FE-SEM which works on a low voltage and allows to obtain high quality and high magnification images of MPs samples without special treatments on the sample before observation.…”

Screening and Quantification of Micro(Nano)Plastics and Plastic Additives in the Seawater of Mar Menor Lagoon

“…The presence of MPLs in marine organisms has been reported during the last decades. Filter feeders such as mussels can consume small plastic particles (Van Cauwenberghe and Janssen, 2014;Dehaut et al, 2016) and it is hypothesized that the buoyancy, size (similar to plankton), and colors can be factors that attract their ingestion by fish (Wright et al, 2013;Pittura et al, 2018), including species at are used for human consumption (Hantoro et al, 2019;Neto et al, 2020;Schirinzi et al, 2020;Castelvetro et al, 2021). In this sense the occurrence of MPLs can be specially relevant in semiconfined areas, due to its limited dilution capacity such as Mar Menor lagoon (SE Spain).…”

Ingestion of macroplastics by common dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus) in the Atlantic Ocean

“…The anthropogenic impact of pollution by plastic debris has threatened marine life inhabiting benthic and pelagic habitats from the poles to the equator (e.g., Ryan and Moloney, 1993;Derraik, 2002;Thompson et al, 2004). The ingestion of plastics by marine organisms is an increasing global trend due to the increase of these polymers in the oceans (e.g., Lusher et al, 2013;Besseling et al, 2015;Lusher et al, 2015;Lusher et al, 2018;Ostle et al, 2019;Neto et al, 2020). After reaching marine ecosystems, plastics can be found either in their large original size (i.e., macroplastic) or in small fragments (i.e., nanoplastics, microplastics, or mesoplastics) (Azevedo-Santos et al, 2019).…”

“…From an ecological point of view, the ingestion of plastic debris is a route of entry for and potential cause of the biomagnification of toxic chemicals in the marine food web (Egbeocha et al, 2018). However, the environmental consequences of this contamination and the overall impact of plastic ingestion are still unknown, despite the growing number of publications on their presence in marine ecosystems and their ingestion by fish (e.g., Ryan and Moloney, 1993;Thompson et al, 2004;Gago et al, 2020, Neto et al, 2020. However, large pelagic fish, which are widely consumed by humans, show a presence of plastic debris that have the potential to indirectly affect human health (Romero et al, 2015).…”

“…This large epipelagic species is known to be a voracious top predator, feeding on a wide range of pelagic and demersal organisms, including cephalopods, crustaceans, and several fish belonging to the Carangidae, Balistidae, Tetraodontidae, Exocoetidae, and Scombridae families (Massutí, et al, 1998;Carbonell et al, 1999;Varghese et al, 2013;Brewton et al, 2016). This ingestion of a wide range of prey, which has been associated with the dolphinfish's opportunistic, voracious feeding nature, can increase the probability of the passive intake of plastic through prey (i.e., secondary ingestion), especially in large predatory fish such as the dolphinfish (Massutí et al, 1998;Varghese et al, 2013;Alomar et al, 2017;Neto et al, 2020). Thus, few studies have reported on macroplastic debris found in the stomachs of common dolphinfish on a global scale (Monooch et al, 1983;Mussuti et al, 1998;Vaske-Junior and Lessa, 2004;Rudershausen et al, 2010;Varghese et al, 2013;Choy et al, 2013;Brewton et al, 2016;Menezes et al, 2019).…”