A comparison of microplastic contamination in freshwater fish from natural and farmed sources
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
A comparison of microplastic contamination in freshwater fish from natural and farmed sources Angela G. Garcia 1
&
Diana C. Suárez 2 & Jiana Li 3 & Jeanette M. Rotchell 4
Received: 29 March 2020 / Accepted: 9 November 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Contamination of aquatic systems mainly by urbanization and poor sanitation, deficient or lack of wastewater treatments, dumping of solid residues, and run off has led to the presence of particles, including manmade polymers, in tissues of many marine and freshwater species. In this study, the prevalence of microplastics (MPs) in freshwater fish from farmed and natural sources was investigated. Oreochromis niloticus from aquaculture farms in the Huila region in Colombia, and two local species (Prochilodus magdalenae and Pimelodus grosskopfii), naturally present in surface waters were sampled. Of the particles identified, fragments were the predominant type in the three tissue types (stomach, gill, and flesh) derived from farmed and natural fishes. MicroFT-IR spectroscopy was conducted on 208 randomly selected samples, with 22% of particles identified as MPs based on spectra with a match rate ≥ 70%. A total of 53% of identified particles corresponded to cellophane/cellulose, the most abundant particle found in all fish. Not all fish contained MPs: 44% of Oreochromis farmed fish contained MPs, while 75% of natural source fish contained MPs in any of its tissues. Overall, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyester (PES), and polyethylene (PE) were the prevalent MPs found in the freshwater fish. A broader variety of polymer types was observed in farmed fish. The edible flesh part of fish presented the lower prevalence of MPs compared to gill and stomach (gut), with gut displaying a higher frequency and diversity of MPs. This preliminary study suggests that the incidence and type of MPs varies in farmed verses natural fish sources as well as across different tissue types, with significantly less detected within the edible flesh tissues compared with stomach and gill tissues. Keywords Microplastics . Fresh water . Fish . Pollution . Aquaculture . Colombia
Introduction There has been a worldwide increase of the concern surrounding microplastics (MPs), particles of a size smaller than or equal to 5 mm (Lusher et al. 2017), about their impacts on the environment as well as entering the food chain (Rochman Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues * Angela G. Garcia [email protected] 1
Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, Universidad Surcolombiana, Avenida Pastrana Borrero Carrera 1A, Neiva, Huila, Colombia
2
Quality Control Laboratory, Export Pez S. A. S, Km 12 vía al sur de Neiva, Huila, Colombia
3
College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
4
Department of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK
et al. 2015; Van Cauwenberghe and Janssen 2014) due to its availability for ingestion to a wide range of aquatic organisms. Increasing n
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