Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research | Kuwait

Title: Possible effects of Microplastic pellets on marine fish

Noura Al-Jandal has completed her PhD on 2011 from the University of Exeter, UK. She is an Associate Research Scientist in the Environmental

and Life Sciences Research Center at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research working on endocrine disrupting chemicals effect

on marine biota. She lead several client funded project and published the work in peer-reviewed journals. She is a member in the Associate

of the Higher Education Academy (AHEA) and a qualified British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) Diving License Holder. She presented her work

in several international conferences as a speaker. Currently she is working on projects of a high global significance such as microplastics

assessment in Kuwait marine environment and submitted new proposal on microplastic pellets effect on fish to the client for funding and

awaiting the funding approva

Marine debris are found floating at the sea surface, on seafloor and on shorelines. Plastics that represents 60–80% of all

marine debris are starting to replace images of sewage as a leading cause of pollution particularly in the ocean.

Microplastics considered as plastic debris pollution that constitute a major threat to marine life due to their persistence, ubiquity

and vector for transferring persistence bioaccumulative toxins in the environment. Microplastics are small plastic debris less

than 5 mm in size and can pose threat to marine organism. Small plastic pellets used for manufacture of plastic products end up

in the marine environment through accidental spillage during transport. Owing to their small size and their occurrence in both

pelagic and benthic ecosystems, microplastics have the potential to be ingested by marine biota such as zooplankton, mussels,

fish, seabirds and whales.Plastic particles accumulating in the intestine of marine organisms can clog the digestive system and

cause false sense of satiation leading to less food consumption. Ingestion of contaminated microplastics represents a unique

exposure route of highly toxic chemical pollutants into the food web. Microplastics can act as a vector for the transport of sorbed

contaminants and chemical additives when ingested by the living organisms. Ingesting microplastics can facilitate the transport

of chemical contaminants to the organism. Recently, a study reported, for the first time, that some aged plastics could release

estrogenic compounds in marine environment. Contaminants can incorporate into the marine plastic pellets by two possible

mechanisms. The first possible mechanism is the adsorption of hydrophobic chemicals into the surface of the plastic resin pellets

from seawater and second possible source is the synthetic chemicals contained in the plastic resin pellets as additives. In general,

the microplastics ingestion by fish can interfere with biological processes and might cause health hazards.

Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait