Microplastics – Effects on Shrimp Studied

According to a report published in the August 2020 issue of Environmental Pollution by researchers with Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114567 researchers evaluated “... differences on the ingestion of anthropogenic [microplastic] fibers in the deep-sea shrimp Aristeus antennatus in the NW Mediterranean Sea and its relation with shrimp’s health … Synthetic fibers … were found in both stomach … and intestine contents … No consistent effect on shrimp’s health condition was found, with only a significant negative correlation found between gonadosomatic index and fibers for those shrimps with the highest values of fiber load … Our findings contribute to the knowledge on plastic pollution for the NW Mediterranean Sea and highlight the potential use of this species as a sentinel species for plastic fiber contamination …” #MicroPlastics