The accumulation of microplastic pollution in a commercially important fishing ground

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  • Eoghan M Cunningham
    Queen's University, Belfast
  • Sonja M Ehlers
    University of Koblenz-Landau
  • Konstadinos Kiriakoulakis
    Liverpool John Moores University
  • Pia Schuchert
    Agri-food and Biosciences Institute of Northern Ireland (AFBINI)
  • Nia Jones
  • Louise Kregting
    Queen's University, Belfast
  • Lucy C Woodall
    University of Oxford
  • Jamie T A Dick
    Queen's University, Belfast
The Irish Sea is an important area for Norway Lobster Nephrops norvegicus fisheries, which are the most valuable fishing resource in the UK. Norway lobster are known to ingest microplastic pollution present in the sediment and have displayed reduced body mass when exposed to microplastic pollution. Here, we identified microplastic pollution in the Irish Sea fishing grounds through analysis of 24 sediment samples from four sites of differing proximity to the Western Irish Sea Gyre in both 2016 and 2019. We used µFTIR spectroscopy to identify seven polymer types, and a total of 77 microplastics consisting of fibres and fragments. The mean microplastics per gram of sediment ranged from 0.13 to 0.49 and 0 to 1.17 MP/g in 2016 and 2019, respectively. There were no differences in the microplastic counts across years, and there was no correlation of microplastic counts with proximity to the Western Irish Sea Gyre. Considering the consistently high microplastic abundance found in the Irish Sea, and the propensity of N. norvegicus to ingest and be negatively impacted by them, we suggest microplastic pollution levels in the Irish Sea may have adverse impacts on N. norvegicus and negative implications for fishery sustainability in the future.
Original languageEnglish
Article number4217
Number of pages6
JournalScientific Reports
Volume12
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2022

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