Microplastics in Bigeye Scad: Malimono Waters Study | InformativeBD

Bernard C. Gomez, Farrah Mae S. Ejares, Pablito R. Baculpo, Carmiel I. Indig, Annarose A. Madrona, and Randy C. Tuyor, from the different institute of the philippines, wrote a research article about Microplastics in Bigeye Scad: Malimono Waters Study, entitled, "Ingestion of microplastics by bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus in Municipal Waters of Malimono, Surigao del Norte, Philippines". This research paper published by the International Journal of  Biosciences | IJB, an open access scholarly research journal on Biosciences, under the affiliation of the, International Network For Natural Sciences | INNSpub, an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher.

Abstract

This study evaluated the presence of microplastic ingestion by bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus from the Municipal Waters of Malimono, Surigao del Norte, Philippines. The microplastics were found in seven (7) fish individuals (11.67%) from a total of 60 fish samples examined, with an average of 0.12 ± 0.04 (mean ± SD) items per fish. Fibers (42.86%) made up the majority of the ingested plastic, followed by beads and fragments (28.57%). Only one piece of plastic was found in each of the stomachs of the seven fish samples that had consumed microplastic. The amount of microplastic that fish consumed in this study is relatively low compared to other findings from various locations. The statistical analysis proved that there is no significant difference (p>0.05) in the condition of all samples with or without microplastic ingestion in the stomach. The mean relative condition factor (Kn) both with and without microplastic ingestions is (K>1), which indicates that fish have good condition. 

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Introduction

Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than 5 mm (0.20 in) in length (Arthur et al., 2009; Collignon et al., 2014), produced from fragmenting bigger plastics through the biological, photolytic, mechanical, and physical breakdown (Li et al., 2020). Further, the breakdown and fragmentation of plastic garbage in the ocean produce tiny plastic particles, or "microplastics" (Browne et al., 2011). 

Microplastics are frequently identified in the digestive tracts of aquatic species all around the world (Roch et al., 2020). Many marine animals, including plankton, mammals, bivalve, filter feeders, and fish, mistakenly eat microplastics because of their small sizes (Lusher et al., 2018; Baechler et al., 2019; Rist et al., 2020). 

These microplastics directly endanger marine organisms and indirectly impact the ecosystem by adsorbing other marine contaminants (Subhankar and Shivika, 2019). Fish exposed to microplastics may suffer from tissue damage, oxidative stress, changes in immune-related gene expression, and a decline in antioxidant status. Moreover, neurotoxicity slowed growth, and abnormal behavior would occur in fish (Bhuyan, 2022). Humans may also suffer oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, neurotoxicity, immune system disruption, and the spread of microplastics to other organs after being exposed to them (Bhuyan, 2022). Fish intake can increase human exposure to microplastics because of the presence of these particles in fish (Barbosa et al., 2018; Barbosa et al., 2020).

Most Filipinos, particularly in Malimono, Surigao del Norte depend on fish as a main source of food and for their livelihood. Bigeye scad, a schooling pelagic species that occurs in tropical inshore waters, is one of the species abundantly caught by fishermen in the area. There is no study focused on the ingestion of microplastics by bigeye scad. Some studies on the microplastic ingestion of fish are focused only on rabbitfish, Siganus fuscescens (Bucol et al., 2020), commercial fish (Wu et al., 2010), demersal fish (Gomez et al., 2022), freshwater fishes (Rios et al., 2022), small coastal fish (Sainio et al., 2021) and others. Thus, this research was conducted to provide a piece of baseline information on the types of microplastics ingested by bigeye scad. This species feeds on small shrimp, benthic invertebrates, and forams while inshore and on zooplankton and fish larvae when offshore (Smith-Vaniz, 1995; Allen and Erdmann, 2012), making it a useful indicator of microplastic pollution in the study area.

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Source : Ingestion of microplastics by bigeye scad, Selar crumenophthalmus in Municipal Waters of Malimono, Surigao del Norte, Philippines