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Effective and easy to use extraction method shows low numbers of microplastics in offshore planktivorous fish from the northern Baltic Sea
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Microplastics were found at low levels in planktivorous fish from the northern Baltic Sea using a validated alkaline digestion extraction method. The study demonstrates an efficient, validated protocol for detecting microplastics in fish and provides baseline contamination data for Baltic marine food webs.
Although the presence of microplastics in marine biota has been widely recorded, extraction methods, method validation and approaches to monitoring are not standardized. In this study a method for microplastic extraction from fish guts based on a chemical alkaline digestion is presented. The average particle retrieval rate from spiked fish guts, used for method validation, was 84%. The weight and shape of the test particles (PET, PC, HD-PE) were also analysed with no noticeable changes in any particle shapes and only minor weight change in PET (2.63%). Microplastics were found in 1.8% of herrings (n=164) and in 0.9% of sprat (n=154). None of the three-spined sticklebacks (n=355) contained microplastic particles.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.