A research published in 2017 aimed to compare the size and color of microplastics and copepod species found in surface waters and in the digestive tract of Decapterus muroadsi captured along the coast of Rapa Nui.
Although the majority of the microplastics in the medium (surface water) were orange, a high abundance of blue microplastic fragments were found in D. muroadsi digestive tracts. Statistical analysis indicated a significantly different selectivity among microplastics of the four colors found in the water samples. This confirmed a selectivity for blue microplastics.
Fig. 1. Size-frequency distribution (% of the total number) of microplastics (bars) of the four colors most frequently found in the 6 superficial water samples (195 microplastics in total; 6 black, 3 grey, 2 red, 2 yellow, 1 purple and 1 green particles are not shown here) and in the 16 fish that had ingested at least one microplastic (45 microplastics; 2 black and 1 green particles are not shown here). Size distributions of three blue-pigmented copepod species (scatter plots) found in the water samples and in the 20 fish that ingested copepods are shown.
This study suggests that some fish could mistakenly ingest microplastics resembling their natural prey.
Fig. 2. Examples of (a–f) blue microplastics in D. muroadsi digestive tracts, and (g) copepod prey Pontella sinica male, (h) Sapphirina sp. and (i) Corycaeus sp. in superficial water along the
coast of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). Scale bars represent 0.5 mm.
For further reading, check the references for the link to the full article.
References
Ory, N. C., Sobral, P., Ferreira, J. L., & Thiel, M. (2017). Amberstripe scad Decapterus muroadsi (Carangidae) fish ingest blue microplastics resembling their copepod prey along the coast of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the South Pacific subtropical gyre. Science of the Total Environment, 586, 430–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.01.175
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