Microplastic fragments and microbeads in digestive tracts of planktivorous fish from urban coastal waters

By Kosuke Tanaka, H. Takada. Scientific Reports, 2016

621 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We investigated microplastics in the digestive tracts of 64 Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) sampled in Tokyo Bay. Plastic was detected in 49 out of 64 fish (77%), with 2.3 pieces on average and up to 15 pieces per individual. All of the plastics were identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Most were polyethylene (52.0%) or polypropylene (43.3%). Most of the plastics were fragments (86.0%), but 7.3% were beads, some of which were microbeads, similar to those found in facial cleansers. Eighty percent of the plastics ranged in size from 150 μm to 1000 μm, smaller than the reported size range of floating microplastics on the sea surface, possibly because the subsurface foraging behavior of the anchovy reflected the different size distribution of plastics between surface waters and subsurface waters. Engraulis spp. are important food for many humans and other organisms around the world. Our observations further confirm that microplastics have infiltrated the marine ecosystem and that humans may be exposed to them. Because microplastics retain hazardous chemicals, increase in fish chemical exposure by the ingested plastics is of concern. Such exposure should be studied and compared with that in the natural diet.

Subfields: Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/102c09f3c14847ef27edcfdeb70be6f6b0b15fbb

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

1. P. Hollman
2. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
3. S. Mason
4. Kerem Gökdağ
5. P. Kasamesiri
6. B. Jovanović
7. O. Güven
8. A. Lusher

In Ocean Engineering

1. S. Mason
2. P. Kasamesiri
3. A. Lusher

In Pollution

1. P. Hollman
2. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
3. S. Mason
4. Kerem Gökdağ
5. P. Kasamesiri
6. B. Jovanović
7. O. Güven
8. A. Lusher

Citations in the corpus

• MICROPLASTICS INGESTION BY FRESHWATER FISH IN THE CHI RIVER, THAILAND (2020, background): “%) from Tokyo Bay, Japan [30].”
• Frequency of Microplastics in Mesopelagic Fishes from the Northwest Atlantic (2018, background): “For example, Tanaka and Takada (2016) report a 77% encounter rate of microplastics in Japanese anchovies (Engraulis japonicus) sampled from Tokyo Bay and Nadal et al. (2016) found microplastics to occur in 68% of seabream (Boops boops) sampled around the Balearic Islands.”
• Microplastic litter composition of the Turkish territorial waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and its occurrence in the gastrointestinal tract of fish. (2017, background): “…5.5% (Rummel et al., 2016); 8e10% (Phillips and Bonner, 2015); 9.2% (Davison and Asch, 2011); 11% (Lusher et al., 2016); 17.5% (Bellas et al., 2016); 19.8% (Neves et al., 2015); 35% (Boerger et al., 2010); 36.5% (Lusher et al., 2013); 68% (Nadal et al., 2016); and 77% (Tanaka and Takada, 2016).”
• Microplastics in fisheries and aquaculture (2017, background): “These species are chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus), Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus), Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus), blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), European sprat (Sprattu”
• Synthetic Polymer Contamination in Bottled Water (2018, background): “More recent studies have focused on fish (such as anchovies), as well as mussels (Rochman et al., 2015; Tanaka and Takada, 2016; Lusher et al., 2017).”