“Unfortunately, I am convinced that glass fibers are a very strong pollutant and have deadly effects on shellfish.”
Corina Ciocan, University of Brighton
Glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) is a composite material used in millions of recreational boats around the world. The problem is that there is no way to recycle it.
A new study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials found that shellfish ingest large amounts of fiberglass, most of which comes from these GRP boats.
CAI’s Gilda Geist spoke to the lead researcher of this study, ecotoxicologist Corina Ciocan of the University of Brighton, to learn more about what the results of her study mean for shellfish populations.
Gilda Geist Corina, it looks like the shellfish you studied came from an area off a shipyard in Chichester Harbor in southern England. Why did you choose this location?
Corina Ciocan Chichester Harbour is a natural harbour in the south-east of England. It offers many areas of scientific interest, but is also a very commercial port with a large number of ships.
About six, seven years ago, I was approached by the harbormaster who was a little bit concerned about plastic pollution in the harbor. I had a whole summer in 2018 where I and my team just went out on the water in the boats. We collected these oysters and mussels from outside an active shipyard. We found that the winter samples in particular were absolutely full of fiberglass, and that coincided with the time when the shipyard was very active. So we assumed that a lot of waste from those shipyards had been blown across the water and then into the sediment. And so the oysters were exposed to these huge amounts of fiberglass that we actually found in the flesh.
GG How much fiberglass is in these shellfish?
CC Up to 12,000 oysters per kilogram, that’s huge. It’s just amazing.
Corina Ciocan, Claude Annels, Megan Fitzpatrick, Fay Couceiro, Ilse Steyl, Simon Bray, Glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GRP) boats and the impacts on the coastal environment – evidence from fibreglass uptake by marine mussels from natural populations, Journal of Hazardous Materials, Volume 472, 2024.
GG To clarify, is glass fiber reinforced plastic the same as fiberglass?
CC No. You have this fiberglass component that runs down the middle and is sandwiched between two plastics. And that’s fiberglass reinforced plastic. Microplastics are so light and float on the water. And then you have the fiberglass, which is heavier than the water and sinks to the sediment and is accessible to all the organisms that live down in the sediment. GRP was first developed about 100 years ago, so the fiberglass has certainly been in the environment for a very long time.
GG I’m wondering if you have any idea how many boats in general are made from these glass reinforced plastic particles?
CC There are about 12 million recreational boats in the US. Most of these are fiberglass boats. Each year, about a million boats will probably become obsolete. There is no recycling solution for fiberglass, so most of these boats will either be abandoned, shredded, or sent to landfill. There will be a lot of microplastics and a lot of fiberglass coming out of the fiberglass boats.
GG What advice would you give to boaters who want to reduce their environmental impact?
CC Boaters need to be the ones who are pushing for research into recycling. Because as I said, this material is not currently recyclable. In more remote parts of the estuaries or coasts, you see a lot of abandoned boats because there is no solution. So the voice of the community needs to be pushing governments and the boating industry – a very, very powerful and very rich industry – to support research into recycling.
GG As an ecotoxicologist, do you eat shellfish?
CC I actually do and I love my mussels.
Unfortunately, I am convinced that glass fibers are a very strong pollutant and have a lethal effect on shellfish. These glass fibers enter the organism and the organism cannot expel them. Then you assume that the organism will eventually die. If you like, this could be a blessing in disguise because it reduces the likelihood of human ingestion.
I don’t think it will have such a huge impact on human health, but we have to be concerned about the environment and all the organisms that contribute in one way or another to the preservation of this wonderful coast.
