Micro plastic fibres in water did not change fertilization and hatching rates of stickleback eggs.

Heart bead rates of stickleback larvae were not altered after embryonic development in water with micro plastic fibres.

As part of the project PlasM, funded by the BMEL, it was tested experimentally if microplastic fibres in water possibly alter fertilization and hatching rates of stickleback eggs. Both, fertilization rates and hatching rates were equally high in water with and without micro plastic fibres. Even though fibres attached to the egg shells (Fig. 1), embryos developed as good as in the controls without micro plastic fibres. After hatching, larvae from the micro plastic fibre treatment did not show alterations of their heart bead rates, which may occur as a consequence of a lack of oxygen during embryonic development. We conclude that concentrations of micro plastic fibres as currently recorded in aquatic systems are not harmful for the development of fish eggs.