Microplastics in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Eastern Beaufort Sea

Microplastics in Polar Samples

“…Necropsies can be difficult when trying to identify microplastics as the size of individuals is often a hindrance and controlling for procedural contamination can be a challenge (Lusher and Hernandez-Milian 2018). Microplastics (20 μm-5 mm, average: 97 AE 42 per individual) were reported in the digestive tracts of seven Beluga whales caught during the annual Beluga harvest in the Eastern Beaufort Sea (Moore et al 2020). However, in a study that focused on seals harvested between 2007 and 2019 in the eastern Canadian Arctic, no microplastics (>425 μm) were found in the stomachs of 142 individuals (Bourdages et al 2020).…”

Plastic ingestion, retention, and transport in animals from the eastern Canadian Arctic

“…Fewer studies exist for plastic ingestion by animals in the Arctic, however, with the growing recognition that plastic pollution in the Arctic is likely to increase (Cózar et al, 2017), assessing the interaction Arctic animals have with plastic pollution is becoming an important area of inquiry. Studies investigating the effects of and ingestion frequencies of plastic pollution by animals in the Arctic have been largely dominated by seabird studies (Provencher et al, 2017), however, other Arctic animals have been examined such as fishes (Bråte et al, 2016;Kühn et al, 2018;Morgana et al, 2018;Nielsen et al, 2014), whales (Moore et al, 2020) and seals (Donohue et al, 2019).…”

“…Donohue et al, 2019;Eriksson and Burton, 2003;Nelms et al, 2018), or a combination of GIT and scat (e.g. Bravo Rebolledo et al, 2013;Moore et al, 2020). Cetaceans appear to be most commonly reported on for ingested plastic pollution, and few studies currently exist for any Arctic marine mammal (e.g.…”

“…Cetaceans appear to be most commonly reported on for ingested plastic pollution, and few studies currently exist for any Arctic marine mammal (e.g. Donohue et al, 2019;Moore et al, 2020), yet none of which are based in the eastern Canadian Arctic. Except for some cases, many of the results from studies reporting on the ingestion of plastic pollution and anthropogenic debris show generally low frequencies of occurrence of plastic pollution in the animals.…”

“…Another recent study looked for microplastic pollution in the GITs of seven beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada (Moore et al, 2020). They found a total of 350 suspected microplastic particles, and identified particles in each sampled whale (Moore et al, 2020).…”