First incidence of microplastic in commercially important food fishes and waters: A case study in the dal Lake ecosystem of North-Western Himalaya (India)

The primary objective purpose of this study was to investigate the presence of microplastics (MPs) within the Dal Lake ecosystem, specifically in the gastrointestinal tracts of commercially important food fishes and water samples. The average abundance of MPs in water samples was recorded as 196.65 ± 0.35 items per liter, while in fish species, it ranged from 3.66 ± 0.25 to 22.33 ± 0.07 items per individual. The most commonly observed shapes of MPs were fragments, followed by fibres and pellets. MPs smaller than 250 μm were predominant in both water and biota samples. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis identified four types of plastic polymers- polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), Polypropylene (PP) and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in all water and fish samples. Among these, polyethylene (PE) was the most abundant polymer detected. The presence of MPs in biota indicates their movement up the food chain to higher trophic levels, underscoring the urgent need for further research into mitigation strategies to address microplastic contamination in fish that are meant for human consumption.