Authors: Sipho Mkhize (MACE Lab NRF Intern 2015), Dr Deborah Robertson-Andersson, Gan Moodley. Submitted and accepted for the Symposium of Contemporary Conservation Symposium (SCCP) 2016.

1. Abstract
Plastic debris at micrometer scale are annually increasing in the world oceans due to continuing
dumping and degradation of plastic. The ingestion of microplastics in fish has been vastly
documented in the Northern oceans; however, in the Southern oceans they remain poorly
assessed. This study investigated the occurrence of ingested microplastics in fish species caught
in the KwaZulu-Natal Bight (the Bight), South Africa, in the south-west Indian Ocean during
the 2010 African Coelacanth Ecosystem Program cruise. A total of 187 individual fish of 16
species were investigated. Microplastics were found in 34% of the fish guts, although plastic
items were found in all species examined. The maximum number of plastic particles discovered
in a single fish was six and there was no significant difference in microplastic ingestion
between fish foraging in the mesopelagic and epipelagic zones. The highest frequency of fish
with plastics was sampled at uThukela region, which occurred during the presence of the
Durban eddy, suggesting that eddies can create higher concentrations of microplastics similar
to those found in gyres. This study provides the first evidence of microplastics in the fish guts
of 16 marine fish species found in the Bight.
Keywords: Durban eddy, Indian Ocean, Fish, KwaZulu-Natal Bight, Microplastics