52
K. Amrutha et al.
among three urban communities to the nearby water bodies. Hossain et al. [46]
studied the intake of microplastic by three commercial marine fishes from Bangladesh
coast. They observed higher abundance of microplastics in gastrointestinal tract of
fishes with higher body weight suggesting a positive relationship between the two
parameters. The larger size microplastics were observed in Bombay-duck species.
They feed on shrimps and smaller fishes [7]. Bombay-duck is normally consumed
by people without processing and the removal of digestive tract does not take place.
This results in the bioaccumulation of microplastics to higher trophic level. The
black [10], white colour [14] of the microplastics observed was in agreement to the
feeding habit of fishes mistaking it to their natural prey [21]. A similar study was
done by Hossain et al. [46] on the tiger shrimp and brown shrimp species. Larger
microplastics were found on the tiger shrimp species compared to brown shrimp
suggesting the variation in feeding habits and habitat differences between near shore
and offshore regions [19]. Rahman et al. [93] studied the occurrence of microplastics
and their distribution along the beach sediments in Cox’s bazar, Bangladesh. They
observed the mean abundance of microplastics in the site to be 8.1 ± 2.9 particles kg
−1 which is much lesser than reported elsewhere in the world. Their usage of mesh
size of 300 µm could have resulted in the lower recovery of smaller size plastic in
the laboratory analysis.
7 Sri Lanka
Jang et al. [52] published first of its kind study on marine debris along the coastal
beaches of Srilanka. This study showed the significant contribution of plastic waste
(98%) in the debris collected. However, their study was limited to mesoplastic range.
There has been no significant research done in the case of microplastic in Srilanka
though Balasubramanim and Phillott [6] compared the microplastic generated on
Srilankan beaches to that of nine other countries and showed the abundance of
microplastics around 10 Mps per 25 g of dry sediment considered. However, no
characterization study was done. Koongolla et al. [65] studied the spatial distribution
of microplastics in the beach sediments and surface water along the southern coastline of Srilanka. They observed significant amount of microplastics in both water
(0–29 items/m2) and sediment samples (0-157 items/m2) collected from multiple
locations. They compared the GDP and microplastic pollution of Srilanka with
various other countries as plastic waste increases with GDP of a country [50]. The
study showed similar results with that of Romania [91] and Morocco [58] though
GDP is comparable only in the latter. However, such comparison is not dependable
due to the differences in sampling and techniques employed. They observed high
amount of Polypropylene and Polystyrene suggesting the sources like fishing nets,
bags, and bottles. Similarily Polystyrene foam was found abundant mainly emitted
from fish storage boxes and buoys. This is indicative of poor waste management
in ports. Fragments, where more predominant shape observed, were compared to
K. Amrutha et al.
among three urban communities to the nearby water bodies. Hossain et al. [46]
studied the intake of microplastic by three commercial marine fishes from Bangladesh
coast. They observed higher abundance of microplastics in gastrointestinal tract of
fishes with higher body weight suggesting a positive relationship between the two
parameters. The larger size microplastics were observed in Bombay-duck species.
They feed on shrimps and smaller fishes [7]. Bombay-duck is normally consumed
by people without processing and the removal of digestive tract does not take place.
This results in the bioaccumulation of microplastics to higher trophic level. The
black [10], white colour [14] of the microplastics observed was in agreement to the
feeding habit of fishes mistaking it to their natural prey [21]. A similar study was
done by Hossain et al. [46] on the tiger shrimp and brown shrimp species. Larger
microplastics were found on the tiger shrimp species compared to brown shrimp
suggesting the variation in feeding habits and habitat differences between near shore
and offshore regions [19]. Rahman et al. [93] studied the occurrence of microplastics
and their distribution along the beach sediments in Cox’s bazar, Bangladesh. They
observed the mean abundance of microplastics in the site to be 8.1 ± 2.9 particles kg
−1 which is much lesser than reported elsewhere in the world. Their usage of mesh
size of 300 µm could have resulted in the lower recovery of smaller size plastic in
the laboratory analysis.
7 Sri Lanka
Jang et al. [52] published first of its kind study on marine debris along the coastal
beaches of Srilanka. This study showed the significant contribution of plastic waste
(98%) in the debris collected. However, their study was limited to mesoplastic range.
There has been no significant research done in the case of microplastic in Srilanka
though Balasubramanim and Phillott [6] compared the microplastic generated on
Srilankan beaches to that of nine other countries and showed the abundance of
microplastics around 10 Mps per 25 g of dry sediment considered. However, no
characterization study was done. Koongolla et al. [65] studied the spatial distribution
of microplastics in the beach sediments and surface water along the southern coastline of Srilanka. They observed significant amount of microplastics in both water
(0–29 items/m2) and sediment samples (0-157 items/m2) collected from multiple
locations. They compared the GDP and microplastic pollution of Srilanka with
various other countries as plastic waste increases with GDP of a country [50]. The
study showed similar results with that of Romania [91] and Morocco [58] though
GDP is comparable only in the latter. However, such comparison is not dependable
due to the differences in sampling and techniques employed. They observed high
amount of Polypropylene and Polystyrene suggesting the sources like fishing nets,
bags, and bottles. Similarily Polystyrene foam was found abundant mainly emitted
from fish storage boxes and buoys. This is indicative of poor waste management
in ports. Fragments, where more predominant shape observed, were compared to