Microplastic Contamination in Australian Seafood from Wild and Store-Bought Sources

Microplastics contamination was assessed in four commercial seafood organisms from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in March 2019. The study analyzed edible and inedible tissues of Common Coral Trout, Barramundi, Blue Legged King Prawns, and Ballots Saucer Scallop, and compared wild-caught samples to store-bought fillets. Full analysis is presented in Dawson et al. 2022.

Use Cases

• Compare microplastic contamination levels between wild-caught and store-bought seafood based on the described sample types.
• Analyze particle characteristics like shape, size, and color based on the described classification of fibers and fragments.
• Model differences in particle sizes extracted from fillets based on the described statistical analysis using a general linear model.
• Assess contamination per tissue weight or per sample based on the described MP abundance calculation methods.

Strengths

• Analysis includes four distinct commercial seafood species commonly consumed in Australia.
• Compares contamination from two sources: wild-caught organisms and store-bought fillets.
• Uses specific analytical methods: attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) or microimaging ATR-FTIR.
• Statistical analysis was performed using GraphPad Prism 8.4.3 or R version 4.1.1.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park sampling.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Samples were analyzed using spectroscopy; physical characteristics were described from microscopic photographs.

Time Range

March 2019

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-22 07:25:42.674733; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, Queensland, Australia