Microplastic Contamination of Wild and Captive Flathead Grey Mullet ( Mugil cephalus )

Lewis T. O. Cheung, Ching Yee Lui and Lincoln Fok
Additional contact information
Lewis T. O. Cheung: Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, China
Ching Yee Lui: Department of Social Sciences, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, China
Lincoln Fok: Department of Science and Environmental Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: A total of 60 flathead grey mullets were examined for microplastic ingestion. Thirty wild mullets were captured from the eastern coast of Hong Kong and 30 captive mullets were obtained from fish farms. Microplastic ingestion was detected in 60% of the wild mullets, with an average of 4.3 plastic items per mullet, while only 16.7% of captive mullets were found to have ingested microplastics, with an average of 0.2 items per mullet. The results suggested that wild mullets have a higher risk of microplastic ingestion than their captive counterparts. The most common plastic items were fibres that were green in colour and small in size (<2 mm). Polypropylene was the most common polymer (42%), followed by polyethylene (25%). In addition, the abundance of microplastics was positively correlated with larger body size among the mullets.

Keywords: microplastic; ingestion; captive mullets; wild mullets; marine pollution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/597/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/4/597/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:4:p:597-:d:138091

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().