Project number: 2022-055
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $9,400.00
Principal Investigator: Nina Wootton
Organisation: University of Adelaide
Project start/end date: 30 Aug 2022 - 30 Jan 2023
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Symposium
Marine Plastics
Capacity Building

Need

[Produce a ‘Critical Review Paper’ to provide a potential roadmap for additional research, as well as help identify communication strategies for the seafood industry. This is a development and networking opportunity to create future relationships and collaborations]

This bursary will allow Nina Wootton to attend the microplastics and seafood symposium in Edinburgh, Scotland. The focus of the symposium will be human health aspects of microplastics in seafood. The aim is to produce a critical review paper to provide a potential roadmap for additional research, as well as help identify communication strategies for the seafood industry. This is part of an international partnership between FRDC, Seafish (UK) and Seafood Industry Research Fund (USA) that will have 11 scientific experts attending along with industry. The symposium provides Australians with a unique opportunity to engage with experts and industry from around the world.

We will also visit several UK based research groups as part of our travel - we have already engaged with researchers from Plymouth Marine Laboratories, University of Plymouth and Exeter University including Professor Richard Thompson, the first researcher to identify microplastics as an issue.

Objectives

1. Attend the 'Microplastics and Seafood
Human Health Symposium' in the United Kingdom
2. To produce a ‘Critical Review Paper’ addressing microplastics in seafood and impact on human health to provide a potential roadmap for additional research and identify communication strategies for the seafood industry

Final report

ISBN: 978-0-6451751-1-0
Authors: Nina Wootton Bronwyn M Gillanders Erik Poole
Final Report • 2023-01-31 • 4.72 MB
2022-055-DLD.pdf

Summary

The presence of microplastics in seafood species is well documented, but the pathways as to how this may be impacting human consumers, and potential health impacts, is still poorly understood. A global team of seafood industry stakeholders and microplastic and ecotoxicology experts met in September 2022 at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh for the Microplastic and Seafood: Human Health Symposium. This international team included industry representatives from the Sydney Fish Market and marine plastic experts from the University of Adelaide. The symposium provided a global platform for scientists to share their research on microplastics and seafood, and how this may be affecting human health, and to connect with each other to create a powerful group of experts in the field. Furthermore, the symposium provided a stage for industry to share their perspectives on microplastics and the implications plastic may pose for seafood supply chains. The symposium also provided a unique opportunity to create a group a well-qualified scientist and seafood industry stakeholders who are equipped with the most up to date information on the risks that microplastic pose to seafood. 

A journal paper was subsequently published: Henry, T.B., Bucknall, D.G., Catarino, A.I., Gillanders, B.M., Haave, M., Kaminski, N.E., Völker, C. and Wootton, N. (2025). Examining Misconceptions about Plastic-Particle Exposure from Ingestion of Seafood and Risk to Human Health. Environmental Science & Technology Letters.