2018_EJRNL_PP_MOHAMED_MOHSEN_1.pdf
Terbatas Lili Sawaludin Mulyadi
» ITB
Terbatas Lili Sawaludin Mulyadi
» ITB
Microplastic ingestion by the farmed sea cucumber is undocumented. Microplastics were isolated from
the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus that was collected from eight farms along the Bohai Sea and the
Yellow Sea in China. To examine microplastic ingestion, the intestines were isolated, digested and then
subjected to the floatation test. The microplastic abundance in the sediment ranged from 20 to 1040
particles kg1 of dry sediment, while the ingested microplastics ranged from 0 to 30 particles intestine1
.
After filtering the coelomic fluid, the extracted microplastics from the coelomic fluid ranged from 0 to 19
particles animal1
. Thus, we speculated that microplastics may transfer to the coelomic fluid of sea
cucumber. The ingested microplastics did not correlate with the animal body weight but was site
dependent, suggesting that sea cucumber may serve as sentinel for microplastic pollution monitoring in
the sediment. The microplastics were identified by Fourier transform infrared micro spectroscopy, and
the polymer types were mainly cellophane, polyester, and polyethylene terephthalate. This study
revealed that, microplastics widely existed in sea cucumber farms, and that sea cucumbers ingest
microplastics as suitable with their mouth open. Moreover, the microplastics might transfer to the
coelomic fluid of the sea cucumber. Further investigations are needed to assess the chronic effect of the
microplastics on the growth and physiological status of the sea cucumber.