Microplastic contamination in wild shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei from the Huizache-Caimanero Coastal lagoon, SE Gulf of California

• Published in: Bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology Vol. 109; no. 3; pp. 425 - 430
• Main Authors: Valencia-Castañeda, Gladys, Ibáñez-Aguirre, Karla, Rebolledo, Uriel Arreguin, Capparelli, Mariana V., Páez-Osuna, Federico
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Abundance; Agriculture; Aquatic Pollution; Biomonitoring; Consumption; Contamination; Crustaceans; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Exoskeleton; Exoskeletons; Fibers; Gastrointestinal system; Gastrointestinal tract; Gills; Ingestion; Lagoons; Litopenaeus vannamei; Microplastics; Plastic debris; Plastic pollution; Pollution; Pore size; Soil Science & Conservation; Toxicology; Variance analysis; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Fragments; Sinaloa; Crustaceans; Films; Food security; Fibers
• ISSN: 0007-4861; 1432-0800
• DOI: 10.1007/s00128-022-03568-6

We identified and characterized microplastics (MPs) in the gastrointestinal tract (GT), gills (GI), and exoskeleton (EX) of Litopenaeus vannamei in a coastal lagoon from the SE Gulf of California. The most common MPs were fibers and fragments with an average size of 403 ± 296 μm, in which the transparent and blue colors predominated. The abundance (items/g as wet weight (ww)) in the GT, GI, and EX was 114.7 ± 33.2, 13.7 ± 5.3 and 3.0 ± 0.5, respectively. The abundance of MPs per shrimp was 13.3 ± 1.1, while the abundance per individual (ww) was 0.9 ± 0.2 MPs/g. Considering the consumption of shrimp in Mexico, MP abundance, and shrimp consumption (discarding GI and EX), we estimated MP ingestion as 280 items/person/year. The results from this study can be used as background information for future MP biomonitoring in shrimp species of ecological and commercial importance.