ABSTRACT
The study was conducted with an exploratory study design to explore the amount of debris around beaches on Libong Island, Thailand. Libong Island is one of the significant tourist attractions in Trang Province. The study was conducted by collecting samples from 4 areas during February, June, September and December 2020. The findings from the study showed that 1,580 items of debris were found with a total weight of 44,744 g. The most common debris found included hard plastic glass, fabric, and fibre, respectively. Thung Ya Kha Beach was the beach where the highest amount of debris was found. The largest quantity of debris (692 items) was found in June, followed by 404 items in February, 274 items in September, and 210 items in December. Based on this study, the outstanding debris was comprised of plastic, including 87 types of plastic, both hard and soft varieties, totaling 805 items. No COVID-19 related products were found on the beach, possibly due to a government emergency declaration. Regarding the closure of beaches and the country's lockdown, there were few Thai tourists. There were no foreign tourists in June or September. The result of the waste separation that the major activity causing waste was shoreline and recreation activity.
ABSTRACT
The study was carried out in the beginning of May, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period in Thailand. This study reported on the occurrence of microplastic debris in stomachs of fish (Arius maculatus) and shrimps (Parapenaeopsis hardwickii and Metapenaeus brevicornis) from Songkhla Lake. The average occurrences of microplastic pieces per stomach in fish and shrimps according to 10% digested KOH reagent were 2.73 ± 0.15, 4.11 ± 1.12 and 3.78 ± 1.12, respectively. The most common shape of microplastics in fish and shrimp was fiber. Black was the most frequent color found followed by blue, white and red. Microplastic size found in this study ranged from 150 μm to 5 mm and 70% of microplastic size was less than 1 mm. Five polymer types were reported including polyester, rayon, polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene and paint. It is worth noting that textile fiber also appeared in stomachs of fish and shrimp. It might have been caused by the fact that during the lockdown period people change their way of life such as doing more laundry thus, releasing more cloth fibers (microplastics) into sewer and lake. This study found anomalous correlation coefficients between the number of microplastic particles in the organisms’ stomachs and most of the metal concentrations in their tissues. © 2021, ALÖKI Kft., Budapest, Hungary.