Abstract

Microplastic ingestion by marine fishes has been of particular interest, as many species are the target of commercial fisheries and, thus, have a strong connection with human health. Consumption of microplastic thru seafood is likely to have harmful effects on people globally but mainly on social groups that highly depend on fisheries for self-consumption. Here, we first aim to characterize the presence of microplastics in species targeted by small-scale fishers; and explore if the fish consumption of microplastic particles is associated with biological factors. Second, we applied semi-structured interviews to small-scale fishers to investigate, from a socio-environmental perspective, the potential social and environmental impacts of contamination by microplastics on the local communities. We found that commercially important fish families regularly contained microplastics in their tissues, and the consumption of microplastics by fish caught through traditional fishing gear depends on traits such as species mobility but the microplastic load also depended on the type of fishing gear used. Species with a wide home range had a higher load of microplastics than fish with a small home range but also seemed to be related to the fishing method. The observed differences in microplastic content on target species are likely to be transferred to humans in a non-random fashion. This work implies that microplastic pollution in commercial fish might represent an environmental and social issue that is not well understood by the fishing community in the Mexican Caribbean, with potential ramifications for marine resource management.

中文翻译：

---

小型渔业目标物种中存在微塑料以及对当地社区可能产生的社会影响

摘要

海洋鱼类摄入的微塑料引起了人们的特别关注，因为许多物种是商业渔业的目标，因此与人类健康密切相关。通过海鲜消费微塑料可能会对全球人民产生有害影响，但主要是对高度依赖渔业自我消费的社会群体产生有害影响。在这里，我们首先旨在描述小规模渔民瞄准的物种中微塑料的存在情况；并探讨鱼类摄入微塑料颗粒是否与生物因素有关。其次，我们对小规模渔民进行半结构化访谈，从社会环境角度调查微塑料污染对当地社区的潜在社会和环境影响。我们发现，具有重要商业价值的鱼类的组织中经常含有微塑料，通过传统渔具捕获的鱼类对微塑料的消耗取决于物种流动性等特征，但微塑料含量也取决于所使用的渔具类型。生活范围较广的物种比生活范围较小的鱼类含有更多的微塑料，但这似乎也与捕捞方法有关。观察到的目标物种微塑料含量的差异很可能以非随机的方式转移到人类身上。这项工作意味着商业鱼类中的微塑料污染可能代表了墨西哥加勒比地区渔业界尚未充分理解的环境和社会问题，并对海洋资源管理产生潜在影响。