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Levels and Classification of Microplastics and Their Impact on the Wellbeing of Selected Commercially Important Fish Species in Kisumu Bay, Lake Victoria
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A study in Kenya's Lake Victoria found microplastics in the digestive tracts of 65% of fish sampled across four commercially important species, including Nile perch and tilapia. Given that these species are important sources of dietary protein for millions of people in East Africa, the findings raise direct human health concerns about plastic ingestion through fish consumption and call for stronger environmental protections in African freshwater systems.
Microplastics (MPs) are emerging pollutants of concern in aquatic ecosystems. Fish ingest MPs accidentally during normal feeding because they resemble prey or by ingesting prey that previously consumed them. Despite severe plastic pollution in Africa, some countries, including Kenya have implemented laws to curb this pollution menace. MPs have scantly been studied in African freshwaters. This study provides empirical data and describes the levels of MPs in four commercially important fish species in Lake Victoria. A total of 95 fish samples were collected from four sampling sites (inshore-offshore waters) between March and May 2022. Microscopy and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transformed Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy methods were used to identify MPs. In this study, 62 out of 95 (65.26%) of the gastrointestinal tracts of the sampled fish contained MPs. The four species showed different proportions of detected MPs among the sampled individuals: 75.00% (Clarias gariepinus), 75.00% (Synodontis victoriae), 71.43% (Lates niloticus), and 59.26% (Oreochromis niloticus). Polystyrene (PS) and poly (perfluorobutadiene) were the main plastic polymers in the fish samples. The condition factors estimated for O. niloticus, S. victoriae, and L. niloticus were > 1 and < 1 for C. gariepinus, respectively. Positive correlations were observed between microplastic numbers and fish length and microplastic numbers and fish weight. However, the low R values obtained implied no strong relationship exists between these parameters. These findings provide evidence of microplastic contamination in fish in Kisumu Bay.
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