Microplastic pollution has become a major global concern. Coastal areas are densely populated with human activity, commercial enterprises, and fishing, resulting in high incidences of fish microplastic pollution. It has been shown that microplastics exist in commercial fish in coastal areas of Guangdong, China. Most of the microplastics were less than 1 mm, white and blue fibers. The abundance, type, shape and color of microplastics in gills and in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of eight species of commercial fish in the coastal waters of central and western Guangdong Province were analyzed. The overall abundance of microplastic particles in fish was 6.6 items/individual, with an average of 2.2 particles in gills and 4.4 in the GIT. The GIT of carnivorous fish was less likely to ingest microplastics than that of herbivores or omnivores. Middle-water fish, on the other hand, are less likely to have their gills contaminated with microplastics. These results revealed the degree of microplastic pollution in fish tissues from the central and western coastal areas of Guangdong province. The quantity of microplastics in the GIT of fish in the Pearl River Delta was the highest compared with the surrounding areas.

As a new type of pollutant, microplastics are of emerging widespread concern, while amount of research done in freshwater environments and organisms is litter compared to that in marine. Following this reality, the categories of MPs in two economic freshwater fish at 25 sites from 11 cities in the north and west rivers of Guangdong province were documented. Here, 76 individuals belong Oreochromis niloticus and Cirrhinus molitorella were investigated and microplastics were found in the GITs of 43.4% and gills of 25%. The average abundances of microplastics have significant difference between Oreochromis niloticus (0.015 items/ g) and Cirrhinus molitorella (0.031 items/g), while no difference by individual (~1.9 items). The plastics were dominated by white in color (61%), fragment in shape (67%), and lass than 1 mm in size (74%). The spatial distribution of microplastics revealed that there are significant differences between different cities in average abundances, and the highest average abundances of MPs were found in Zhanjiang city (4.25 items/individual) and Guangzhou city (0.044 items/g), respectively. Our results fully proved that the microplastics was widely ingested by wild fish species and suggested that the abundance and distribution of microplastics are positively related with the development of economy, tourism, industry, agriculture, and fishery.