Microplastic Pollution Investigation for Chennai Coast

In response to a rise in the intake of abandoned garbage from plenty of resources, there is an increasing concern about the presence of microplastics, or plastic materials smaller than 5 ml, near the coastline. Microplastic trash was evaluated and divided into four distinct size categories in order to assess the amount of microplastic contamination in the seashores (25 spots) along the Tamil Nadu coast (1076 km), India. Riverine, tourists, and fisheries were employed to categorize the coastlines concerning their propensity for contamination. Microplastic was substantially more prevalent in seaside specimen collections made at higher waves when compared to lower tides. Shore’s riverbanks showed a significantly greater quantity of microplastics than coastlines affected by fisheries and tourist activities. Plastic shards made up the majority of the overall trash found (47–50%), followed by line/fibres (24–27%) and foamy (10–19%) components. These three predominant kinds of microplastics observed on these coastlines are polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene, according to Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) study. Analyses of the intestinal contents of highly significant fishes gathered from shore regions showed that 10.1% of the fishes had consumed plastic particles. The findings emphasize the need for microplastics filtering from estuaries, coastline waters, and other potential causes and suggest that microplastic build-up in the maritime ecosystem, particularly close to stream openings, because to its propensity to contaminate the marine food cycle, could pose a severe hazard.