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Occurrence of plastic debris in the stomach of the invasive crab Eriocheir sinensis

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2016 83 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 35 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Pedro Anastácio Dagmara Wójcik, Monika Normant, Pedro Anastácio

Summary

Researchers examined stomach contents of 302 Chinese mitten crabs from Baltic and Portuguese waters, finding microplastic strands and balls in 13% of individuals, mostly transparent fragments likely originating from fishing gear — raising concern for both crab health and human consumers who eat this commercially harvested species.

The Chinese mitten crab is known as a pest causing damage to fishing gears and fish. On the other hand, this highly invasive species is considered a delicacy by Asian migrants and therefore commercially fished and sold in many countries. The ingestion of plastic by the Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis from the Baltic coastal waters (Poland) and the Tagus Estuary (Portugal) was studied based on stomach content analysis. As many as 13% of the 302 analysed males and females (38.07-89.07mm carapace width) from both regions, contained microplastic in the form of strands and balls. Most of them were transparent. Ingested plastic particles were identified as fragments of fishing gears. Contamination with plastic may have a negative impact on this species as well as on higher trophic levels feeding on crabs.

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