Microplastic ingestion by small coastal fish in the northern Baltic Sea, Finland
Erika Sainio, Maiju Lehtiniemi, Outi Setälä
Abstract
Microplastic (MP) ingestion by four species of small coastal fish from the northern Baltic Sea was investigated. The digestive tract contents of 424 specimens, caught across eight sampling sites along the Finnish coastline were analysed for the occurrence of MP ingestion. MP were found in 38 fish individuals (9% of sampled fish). Specimens from the urban area of Helsinki displayed the highest prevalence of ingested plastics (27.5%). No relationship was found between the size or species of the fish and the presence of ingested MP particles nor the amount of MP in seawater. The comparison to a previous study conducted using the same research methods indicates that the ingestion of MP is more common in coastal fish than in offshore fish in the northern Baltic Sea.