Plastics in 19 out of 20 trout

A NEW study has revealed that more than 100 pieces of “man- made debris” were found inside 19 out of 20 coral trout caught off reefs near Townsville.

It was the first study to report the presence of micro debris in wild- caught commercial fish in the world heritage area.

Researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville found 115 items of man- made debris in the gastrointestinal tracts of 19 out of 20 juvenile coral trout collected on coral reefs at Lizard, Orpheus, Heron and One Tree islands.

AIMS marine ecologist Frederieke Kroon said 94 per cent of the items were a mix of semisynthetic and naturally derived materials, while 6 per cent were synthetic.

“This new classification will improve our understanding of ingestion of micro plastics versus other man- made debris,” Dr Kroon said.

“In the future, we hope this system of classification will help in assessing the risk of such ingestion to the health of the fish, as well as of potential human consumers.

“In our study, the condition of the coral trout did not appear to be affected by the abundance of ingested micro debris.”