The First Evidence of Microplastics Occurrence in Greater Pipefish (Syngnathus acus Linnaetabus, 1758) in the Black Sea

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) occurrence in greater pipefish Syngnathus acus was assessed in the Black Sea for the first time. MPs were found in 21 % of total pipefish examined. MPs were mainly fibres in shape (89 %), black in colour (52 %) and 0.2- 1 mm (52 %) in size. The mean MP concentration was 0.30 mp. fish-1 (considering all the fish analysed) and was 1.38 mp. fish-1 (considering the fish that ingested them). The frequency of MP occurrence in male pipefish was higher (23.5 %) compared to females (20.7%) and immatures (16.7 %). 91.7 % of the polymers found were synthetic with the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) (29%) being the most common polymers. FTIR spectroscopy also confirmed the presence of the plastic-related compounds, butyl stearate (BS) and glyceraldehyde unnatural form (GA) in the analysed samples. Our results show that S. acus, which is an ecologically important demersal fish, is contaminated by MPs in the Black Sea and that there is an urgent assessment to better understand the environmental fate of MPs in the Black Sea and taking necessity measures to reduce the amount of plastics entering this basin.