Anthropogenic fibers (quantity, size, colour) observed in whole body, gills, digestive glands and remaining tissues of Asiatic Clam (Meretrix Lyrata) sampled in Can Gio mangrove, Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam in 2016

The total number of tested (and dissected) individuals was 105 over the seven months of study, corresponding to a total of 35 replicates. The pooled samples of G, D and R were put separately in glass 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks to carry out their digestion using a protocol adapted from (Dehaut et al., 2016). Approximately 150 mL KOH 10% was put in each Erlenmeyer flask and the samples were covered with aluminum foils, kept on a hot plate at 40oC for 24 hours and gently manually agitated.

The samples were then filtrated through glassfiber filters (Whatman, GF/A, 1.6 µm pore size) using a glass filtration unit connected to a vacuum pump. The anthropogenic fibers on the filters were observed using the Leica stereoscope S6D with the measurement software LAS. The morphology of fibers including length and colours was recorded.

The observation size range was chosen from 300 to 5,000 um.