MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 35 (1): 103-113 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.47193/mafis.3512022010101
ABSTRACT. White croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) is the most important commercial fish of
Río de la Plata Estuary System (RLPES), one of the most extensive on the western South Atlantic
coast. This paper describes the occurrence, abundance, and type of plastic debris (PD) present on the
digestive tracts of 65 white croakers in the RLPES. Eighty percent of analyzed individuals had ingest-
ed PD, 156 of which (FO =83.9%) were thread-like plastics and 30 were fragments (FO =16.1%).
The average number of pieces per digestive tract was 2.83 ±3.14. Microplastic represented 85% of
PD, most of them were <2 mm and the prominent color was blue. Our results demonstrate the high
occurrence of meso and microplastics in one of the most important species from an ecological and
commercial viewpoint in the RLPES. The RLPES is the area of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean that
concentrates most of the records of plastic waste in the environment, where the white croaker is the
main commercial fish. In addition, M. furnieri is a main prey for several predators in the area.
Although preliminary, this is a relevant contribution to the knowledge of marine debris pollution and
its impact on the marine community of the region.
Key words: Marine debris ingestion, plastic pollution, Micropogonias furnieri, estuary, South
America.
Primeros registros de la presencia de meso y microplásticos en el tracto digestivo de un
importante pez comercial del Sistema del Estuario del Río de la Plata (Océano Atlántico
Sudoccidental)
RESUMEN. La corvina rubia (Micropogonias furnieri) es el pez comercial más importante del
Sistema del Estuario del Río de la Plata (RLPES), uno de los más extensos en la costa atlántica sud-
occidental. En este trabajo se describe la ocurrencia, abundancia y tipo de desechos plásticos (DP)
presentes en el tracto digestivo de 65 ejemplares de corvina rubia del RLPES. El 80% de los indivi-
duos analizados había ingerido DP, de los cuales 156 eran plásticos filiformes (FO =83,9%) y 30
eran fragmentos (FO =16,1%). El número medio de piezas por tracto digestivo fue de 2,83 ±3,14.
El microplástico representó el 85% de los DP, la mayoría de las cuales eran <2 mm y el color pre-
dominante fue el azul. Nuestros resultados demuestran la alta ocurrencia de meso y microplásticos
en una de las especies más importantes desde el punto de vista ecológico y comercial en el RLPES.
El RLPES es el área del Océano Atlántico Sudoccidental que concentra la mayor parte de los regis-
tros de desechos plásticos en el medio ambiente, donde la corvina rubia es el principal pez comercial.
103
*Correspondence:
amandiol@mdp.edu.ar
Received: 13 May 2021
Accepted: 1 July 2021
ISSN 2683-7595 (print)
ISSN 2683-7951 (online)
https://ojs.inidep.edu.ar
Journal of the Instituto Nacional de
Investigación y Desarrollo Pesquero
(INIDEP)
This work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License
Marine and
Fishery Sciences
MAFIS
NOTE
Baseline data of the presence of meso and microplastics in the digestive
tract of a commercially important teleost fish from Río de la Plata Estuary
System (Southwest Atlantic Ocean)
M. AGUSTINA MANDIOLA1, *, RAMIRO BAGNATO2, JOAQUÍN C. M. GANA1, M. CAROLINA DELEÓN1,
MARIELA DASSIS1, DIEGO ALBAREDA3and PABLO DENUNCIO1, 4
1Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMdP), Consejo Nacional de
Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), C. C. 1260, B7602HSA - Mar del Plata, Argentina. 2Freelance researcher. 3Departamento
de Conservación, Ecoparque, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. 4Asociación Naturalistas Geselinos, Villa Gesell, Argentina.
ORCID M. Agustina Mandiola https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0746-8816, Joaquín C. M. Gana https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3442-8879,
Mariela Dassis https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1602-773X, Pablo Denuncio https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6357-4082
Nowadays, there is growing global concern
about pollution by plastic debris (PD), and marine
ecosystems are particularly involved in this prob-
lem, being the final destination of most marine
debris (Eriksen et al. 2014). An estimated 6-12
million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year
(Jambeck et al. 2015), these circumstances are
persistent in the environment and have negative
impacts on marine fauna (Gregory 2009).
Entanglement and ingestion are the two main
types of interaction by aquatic organisms (Laist
1997; Gall and Thompson 2015; Kühn and van
Franeker 2020). The former is the most visible
effect of PD on organisms and is mainly associat-
ed with suffocation and general debilitation (Gre-
gory 2009; Jepsen and de Bruyn 2019), whereas
the latter is less visible and recorded, and is related
to satiation (Derraik 2002; Machovsky-Capuska
et al. 2019; Santos et al. 2020). In fact, at least 750
marine species interact with PD (Gall and Thomp-
son 2015). Records of PD ingestion on some
marine species of commercial importance for
human consumption have significantly increased
over the last years throughout the world (Foekema
et al. 2013; Lusher et al. 2013; Van Cauwenberghe
and Janssen 2014; Devriese et al. 2015; Neves et
al. 2015; Rochman 2015; Liboiron et al. 2016;
Bessa et al. 2018; Ory et al. 2018; Arias et al.
2019; Azevedo-Santos et al. 2019). However,
there is a lack of evidence of plastic transfer from
seafood to humans (Akhbarizadeh et al. 2019).
In Argentina, fishing represents one of the most
important economic activities for the country; in
fact, more than 450,000 t corresponding to 57
species of fish were caught in 2020 (MAGyP
2021). Nowadays, records of plastic ingestion in
Argentine commercial fishes are very few, namely
in silverside (Odontesthes bonariensis) from Río
de la Plata Estuary System (RLPES) (Pazos et al.
2017) and white croaker (Micropogonia furnieri)
from Bahía Blanca Estuary (Arias et al. 2019).
Estuaries and coastal areas of heavily anthro-
pogenic impacted regions are the most polluted
ecosystems with plastic debris (Eriksen et al.
2014; Galgani et al. 2015; Frère et al. 2017). In
Argentina, the RLPES is an extensive and shal-
low coastal plain estuary on the western South
Atlantic coast (35° S-36° S) (Mianzan et al.
2001). The presence of more than 5 million
inhabitants on its coasts (Baigún et al. 2016),
added to oceanographic characteristics of the
area, makes the estuary an area with high concen-
tration of PD (Acha et al. 2003). In particular, the
presence of PD has been found on different
species, ranging from freshwater fishes to marine
turtles, marine birds and marine mammals
(Denuncio et al. 2011, 2017; Gonzalez Carman et
al. 2014; Lenzi et al. 2016; Pazos et al. 2017; Bur-
gues et al. 2020).
This area is also a highly productive system,
where industrial and artisanal fisheries are very
valuable, being M. furnieri one of the main
species from the ecological (Denuncio et al.
2017; Franco Trecu et al. 2017) and commercial
(Mianzan et al. 2001) viewpoints of the area. Due
to the high concentration of PD found in the
RLPES, this study is meant to assess the occur-
rence, abundance, and type of PD present on the
digestive tract of this species.
Fish samples were purchased from a bottom
trawling fishery company operating on the
coastal area of Bahía San Borombón (RLPES,
36° 26′ S-57° 70′ W) in August 2017 (Figure 1).
Sixty-five individuals of M. furnieri were meas-
ured (mm) (TL), weighted (g) (W), classified in
juvenile or adult class following the guidelines
104 MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 35 (1): 103-113 (2022)
Además, M. furnieri constituye una presa principal de varios depredadores de la zona. Aunque preliminar, esta es una contribución rele-
vante al conocimiento de la contaminación por desechos marinos y su impacto en los organismos del Océano Atlántico Sudoccidental,
particularmente en el RLPES.
Palabras clave: Ingestión de basura, plásticos marinos, Micropogonias furnieri, estuario, América del Sur.
set out by Vizziano et al. (2002), who determined
the size at first maturity in 202 ±4.0 mm and 195
±0.4 mm for females and males, respectively. In
addition, the Condition Factor (CF) was calculat-
ed according to CF =(W ×100)/(TL)3(da Costa
and Araújo 2003).
Complete digestive tracts were removed and
examined for PD ingestion analysis. Digestive
tracts were dissolved and fully digested with a
solution of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), adjusting
the methodology used in several studies (Avio et
al. 2015; Pazos et al. 2017; Arias et al. 2019). In
order to reduce the time under chemical digestion
(7 d for digestion with 30% H2O2for Arias et al.
2019), 48 h in H2O260% solution was the opti-
mal method used to obtain complete organic
digestion. PD were identified and separated. Sep-
aration of long size fragments was made by the
naked eye, while microplastics were identified by
means of a magnifying glass and removed. PD
obtained were counted, measured, and classified
by type (sheet plastics, thread-like plastics,
foamed synthetics, and hard fragments), color
and size (microplastics: <5 mm, mesoplastics: 5-
20 mm and macroplastics >20 mm; Barnes et al.
2009) according to the recommended standardi-
zation for the ingestion of marine debris from
megafauna proposed by Provencher et al. (2017).
The presence of PD was expressed as the fre-
quency of occurrence (FO%), defined as the pro-
portion of individuals analyzed where PD was
found. General Additive Models (GAM) were
used to explore differences between total PD
related to total length, weight, sex, and condition
factor of fishes. Models were tested for goodness
of fit and the most parsimonious model was cho-
sen using the Akaiki’s Information Criteria (AIC)
(Burnham and Anderson 2003). Statistical analy-
ses were performed using the free access program
R (R Core Team 2021).
105
MANDIOLA ET AL.: PLASTICS IN THE DIGESTIVE TRACT OF WHITE CROAKER
Figure 1. Location where commercial company caught white croaker (Micropogonias furnieri) in Río de la Plata Estuary System
(RLPES) during 2017 (reticulate area).
55°
60°65°
35°
40°
Argentina
50
Bahía
Samborombón
RLPES
Bahía Blanca
Estuary
200 2,000
100
km
Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
S
W
Uruguay
Fish body lengths ranged from 229 to 759 mm
(mean 397.5 ±146 mm) and weight ranged
between 235 and 632 g (mean 347.8 ±87 g). The
proportion of males was 57%, while females rep-
resented 36% of samples, 7% of the specimens
could not be identified; all fish sampled were
adults.
Eighty percent of analyzed individuals ingest-
ed PD. A total of 186 items were counted, of
which 156 were thread-like plastics (FO = 83.9%)
and 30 were fragments (FO =16.1%) (Figure 2).
Average number of pieces of PD per digestive
tract was 2.83 ±3.14 (max =17 pieces). The
number of PD per digestive tract was not signifi-
cantly affected by the total length, weight, sex,
and condition factor of fishes (GAM model,
R2 =-0.0492; p =0.62). Microplastic debris
accounted for 85% of pieces found, most of which
were < 2 mm (FO =57.5%) (Figure 3). There was
no macroplastic presence in the guts analyzed.
Most prominent colors were blue (FO =
59.9%), followed by brown (FO =14%), black
(FO =9.3%), red (FO =9.3%), violet (FO =2.3%),
yellow (FO =2.3%), white (FO =1.7%), and green
(FO =1.2%) (Figure 4).
Our results demonstrate a high occurrence of
meso and microplastics in M. furnieri from
RLPES, where pieces <2 mm and thread-like
plastics were predominant. Microplastics com-
prised a very heterogeneous assemblage of parti-
cles that varied in size, shape, color, chemical
composition and density (Galgani et al. 2015).
Thread-like plastics dominated marine debris,
including mainly fibers, which were also the pre-
dominant type of micro-debris in almost all stud-
ies of PD in fishes (e.g. Boerger et al. 2010; Lush-
er et al. 2013; Pazos et al. 2017; Arias et al. 2019).
PD found in M. furnieri had been previously
reported only once in a different estuary area of
Argentina (Bahía Blanca), located ca. 700 km
southern away from our study area (Arias et al.
2019) (Figure 1). The number of pieces found per
individual (∼12) in Arias et al. (2019) was greater
than the values obtained in our paper, but the type
of PD dominant in both was the same (thread-like
plastics/fibres). White croaker is a benthic and
generalist species (Carozza et al. 2004), previous
reports have observed that benthic and demersal
fish contained more fibres, while pelagic fish
contained more fragments (Markic et al. 2018).
106 MARINE AND FISHERY SCIENCES 35 (1): 103-113 (2022)
Figure 2. Fragment (A) and thread-like (B) microplastics extracted from the guts of Micropogonias furnieri from Río de la Plata
Estuary System (RLPES).
5 mm
AB
Probably, this is a consequence that fibres are also
commonly found as the prevalent type of PD in
benthic sediments (Claessenes et al. 2011; Frias et
al. 2016).
Differences obtained in the number of pieces
per digestive tract in both studies could be related
to several non-exclusive factors. Although PD
biomagnification across a general marine food
web is not supported by current field observa-
tions, it is not ruled out (Miller et al. 2020). There
are differences in the feeding ecology between
croakers from RLPES and from Bahía Blanca
Estuary (Carozza et al. 2004) that could explain
such differences. Besides that, the methodology
used by Arias et al. (2019) was different from the
one used in this paper. They used different con-
107
MANDIOLA ET AL.: PLASTICS IN THE DIGESTIVE TRACT OF WHITE CROAKER
Figure 3. Frequency of occurrence (FO%) of plastic debris (PD) classified by size and type from the digestive tract of
Micropogonias furnieri from Río de la Plata Estuary System (RLPES) in 2017.
Figure 4. Frequency of occurrence (FO%) of plastic debris (PD) classified by size and colors from the digestive tract of
Micropogonias furnieri from Río de la Plata Estuary System (RLPES) in 2017.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
<1 1.01-2 2.01-3 3.01-4 4.01-5 5-25 >25 mm
Microplastic Mesoplastic Macroplastic
FO (%)
Thread-like plastics Fragments
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Blue Brown Black Red Green Violet Yellow White
Microplastic Mesoplastic
FO (%)
centration and time of exposition of H2O2to fully
digest the digestive tract, and PD were inspected
under a stereomicroscope, allowing the detection
of plastic sizes not detected by our procedure.
Despite the latter, our study represented a prelim-
inary assessment and was focused on larger
(mesoplastics and large microplastics) marine
debris, and differences could be related to the low
capability and equipment to detect the smallest
range of microplastics.
In our study, blue color was remarkably more
frequent than others. Blue PD, particularly
microplastics, dominated microplastics found in
many species, from freshwater fishes to marine
megafauna (e.g. Ory et al. 2017; Meaza et al.
2020; Zantis et al. 2020); but for the same species
Arias et al. (2019) observed that predominant col-
ors were transparent and red. It was also observed
that there was a difference in color distribution
depending on locations (Markic et al. 2018),
which could explain differences found between
both areas.
Plastic ingestion causes physical and chemical
effects on organisms (Kühn et al. 2015). Despite
plastics are not bioaccumulated in individuals
(Grigorakis et al. 2017), they can produce differ-
ent chemical effects in individuals, such as
changes in the body condition of the animals
(Rochman et al. 2014; Luis et al. 2015). Several
studies correlated the body condition of fish with
plastic load but results were irresolute and oppo-
site (Rummel et al. 2016; Cardozo et al. 2018;
Compa et al. 2018). Our study, therefore, suggest-
ed that there was no evidence that total length,
weight, sex, and condition factor were related
with the PD presence in white croaker from
RLPES, and probably that plastic ingestion
occurred as a result of a certain individual trait
(e.g. Toms et al. 2010).
Microplastics ingestion has been well docu-
mented for a range of commercially interested
animals for human consumption in several coun-
tries, mainly in Europe and Asia (Barboza et al.
2018). Recently, the translocation of microplas-
tics from the digestive tract to muscle tissue
(Abbasi et al. 2018; Zitouni et al. 2020; Rasta et
al. 2021) and the transfer of toxins from
microplastics to tissue have been documented
(Rochman et al. 2014). Even if the trophic trans-
fer of microplastics in marine food webs remains
unknown (Akhbarizadeh et al. 2019), physical
and chemical studies of microplastics in marine
commercial species of the region should continue
as an essential topic in terms of public health and
food security. At present, there are very few stud-
ies of microplastics in commercial species from
Argentina (Pazos et al. 2017; Arias et al. 2019).
The presence of PD in the digestive tract of M.
furnieri registered in this paper contributes to the
evaluation of the overall impact of plastic pollu-
tion on the marine community of the region.
Nonetheless, this work is a baseline study; future
works could include chemical characterization of
PD and new methodology for detection of smaller
MPs.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank Santiago Barbini, who helped with
age class classification of individuals, and
Soledad Rosso from Área de Nutrición del Eco-
parque in Buenos Aires who helped us arrange the
samples. Also, we are incredibly grateful to the
anonymous reviewer for improving the manu-
script quality. JG and CDL were granted with
Doctoral fellowships by Consejo Nacional de In-
vestigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET).
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