Black Sea fauna massively contaminated with microplastics, Romanian researchers say

A study carried out by researchers at Romania’s National Institute for Marine Research and Development ‘Grigore Antipa’ revealed that the fauna in the Black Sea is massively contaminated with microplastics.

Specialists say that the proximity to the Danube River mouths, which brings over 4 tons of plastic into the Black Sea daily, is responsible for this situation. As a result, 93.3% of sprat and whelk specimens (a type of sea snail), and 66.7% of mussels from the Romanian coastal area analyzed were contaminated with microplastics smaller than 5 millimeters.

The study, published in December 2025, shows that microplastics were identified both in the digestive organs and in the soft tissue of the three species analyzed.

“Black, blue, and transparent microplastics represented the majority of particles found in all three species, although their relative proportions varied. In all species, the dominant colors of the particles differed significantly: mussels were characterized mainly by blue particles, whelks by black particles, and sprat by transparent particles, demonstrating clear species-level contrasts in the composition of ingested microplastics," the Grigore Antipa Institute study stated, according to Digi24.

The researchers compared the results obtained on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea with studies conducted by Bulgarian researchers in the Varna and Burgas areas, and noted that the pollution on Romanian shores was worse.

The pollution also poses risks to human health, as ingesting microplastics can cause digestive issues and even cancer.

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