Evidence of Marine Microplastics in Commercially Harvested Seafood.

Emily Curren,Sandric Chee Yew Leong,Po Teen Lim,Chui Pin Leaw

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.562760

Abstract

Microplastic pollution is a global issue that has a detrimental impact on food safety. In marine environments, microplastics are a threat to marine organisms, as they are often the same size range as prey and are mistaken as food. Consumption of microplastics has led to the damage of digestive organs and a reduction in growth and reproductive output. In this study, microplastic pollution was assessed across three commercially available shrimp species that were obtained from the supermarkets of Singapore. A total of 93 individuals were studied from the Pacific white leg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, the Argentine red shrimp Pleoticus muelleri and the Indian white shrimp Fenneropenaeus indicus. Microplastic fibers, fragments, film and spheres were identified from the digestive tract of these organisms. Microplastic abundance ranged from 13.4 to 7050 items. F. indicus exhibited the highest number of microplastics. Microplastic film was the most abundant in L. vannamei individuals (93–97%) and spheres were the most abundant in P. muelleri (70%) and F. indicus (61%) individuals. This study demonstrates that microplastic contamination is evident in commonly consumed shrimp and highlights the role of shrimp in the trophic transfer and accumulation of microplastics in seafood. The consumption of microplastic-containing seafood is a route of exposure to humans and has implications on human health and food security. Capsule: Microplastics were examined in three shrimp species from the supermarkets of Singapore. Microplastics ranged from 13.4 to 7050 items of shrimp.

Highlights

Plastic pollution is a global problem of the 21st century
Three species of marine shrimp, L. vannamei, P. muelleri and F. indicus, from four locations, Malaysia, Ecuador, Southwest Atlantic and the Indian Ocean were obtained from the supermarkets of Singapore and studied for their presence of microplastics
This study demonstrated that microplastic particles are present in the digestive tracts of three species of shrimp, L. vannamei, P. muelleri and F. indicus, which are commercially available in the supermarkets of Singapore

Summary

Introduction

Plastic pollution is a global problem of the 21st century. In marine environments, microplastics are widespread and are found in many coastal waters and even in large water bodies such as the Pacific (Desforges et al, 2014), Atlantic (Enders et al, 2015), and the Arctic (Lusher et al, 2015). Microplastics can exist as primary microplastics, which are round plastic nurdles or pellets, which are used for pre-production of larger plastic particles. Primary microplastics exist in the form of microbeads, which were once highly popular in cosmetics such as facial cleansers and toothpastes (Napper et al, 2015). Due to the small size of these particles, microplastics will evade sewage treatment and be discharged directly into the marine environment through wastewater (Pirc et al, 2016). Secondary microplastics are formed from degradation and Microplastics in Commercial Seafood fragmentation of larger plastic particles such as foam buoys and fishing gear due to physical, biological and chemical processes (Andrady, 2011)

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