Date of Award

Fall 2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (BS)

Department

Marine Science

College

College of Science

First Advisor

Eric D. Rosch

Abstract/Description

Coastal South Carolina is a prime destination for shrimping. The commercial White Shrimp, Litopenaeus setiferus, is one of the main species found in South Carolina estuaries and coastline. There are commercial and recreation fishing practices in South Carolina for L. setiferus, making it a species of interest for the public. Microplastics are additionally a large interest in the public and scientific community for research and solutions. The threats of plastic pollution are not fully understood in the marine environment, but there has been a boom of research discussing various effects and distributions of microplastics in the ocean recently. Shrimp species have been documented with microplastics in from various regions, such as Malaysia, Ecuador, the Southwest Atlantic, and Indian Ocean from a study using shrimps found in a Singapore market (Curren et al, 2020). In South Carolina, grass shrimp, Palaemonetes pugio, was found to contain microplastics, however there are vast differences between P. pugio and L. setiferus (Gray and Weinstein, 2017). The objective of this study was to document the abundance of microplastic fibers in the commercial white shrimp, L. setiferus, in South Carolina.

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