Project Highlights

Attaching importance to wildly concerned environemental issue

Immediate follow-up of “Microplastic in Flathead mullet” publicized by Greenpeace HK

A Scholarly Project

We are blessed to be led by Dr. C.C. Cheang and Dr. W. C. Li, who are very experienced environmental educator. Also, we are so fortunate to garner the support from Dr. Chan, our mentor teacher who has a strong background in ecology and biology education.

For a solid knowledge background, which is fundamental to scientific inquiry, we have contacted the co-first author of the journal article below (C. Y. Lui). It is thankful to receive guidance for fish dissection and microplastic examination in digestive system, as well as the advice on lab protocol for our workshop.

Cheung, L. T., Lui, C. Y., & Fok, L. (2018). Microplastic Contamination of Wild and Captive Flathead Grey Mullet (Mugil cephalus). International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(4), 597.

Microplastic Contamination of Wild and Captive Flathead Grey Mullet (Mugil cephalus)A total of 60 flathead grey mullets were examined for microplastic ingestion. Thirty wild mullets were captured from the eastern coast of Hong Kong and 30 captive mullets were obtained from fish farms. Microplastic ingestion was detected in 60% of the wild mullets, with an average of 4.3 plastic items per mullet, while only 16.7% of captive mullets were found to have ingested microplastics, with an average of 0.2 items per mullet. The results suggested that wild mullets have a higher risk of microplastic ingestion than their captive counterparts. The most common plastic items were fibres that were green in colour and small in size (<2 mm). Polypropylene was the most common polymer (42%), followed by polyethylene (25%). In addition, the abundance of microplastics was positively correlated with larger body size among the mullets.

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