#delphinapterus leucas

MICROPLASTICS IN THE GASTROINTESTINAL TRACTS OF ALL BELUGA EXAMINED FROM ARCTIC WATERS

According to a recent published study in Marine Pollution Bulletin, researchers worked with community-based monitors and Inuvialuit hunters from Tuktoyaktuk (Northwest Territories, Canada) to sample seven beluga whales in 2017 and 2018.Microplasticswere detected in the gastrointestinal tracts in every individual beluga whale, with each whale having an average of nearly 97 particles, but some of them had 147 particles.

Microplastics are plastic fragments, regularly smaller than 5 mm in size, and represent an emerging global environmental concern, as they have been detected in multiple aquatic species. However, very little is known about the presence of microplastics in higher trophic species, including cetaceans.

-Examples of microplastic particles observed within beluga gastrointestinal tracts (left: polystyrene fragment; right: polyester fibre) Bar is 0.02 cm.

Researchers do not know how microplastics enter whales, but they believe is because whales feed on fish, which have already ingested plastic.

• Photo: Beluga whale by Britt Reints | Flickr
• Reference:Mooreet al., 2019. Microplastics in beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the Eastern Beaufort Sea. Marine Pollution Bulletin