Marine and coastal ecosystems, marine resources, quality of sea products or marine energy, without forgetting the socio-economic aspects: for six years the Marco project endeavored to study globally the marine environment and aquatic products in Hauts-de-France. ” The project made it possible to bring together distant disciplinary teams. We were able to produce data that we would not have had if we had not partnered with other organizations “says Anne Brisabois, co-coordinator of the project and scientific director of food safety at ANSES. The project thus associated the University of Littoral Côte d’Opale (Ulco), ANSES (Food Safety Laboratory), CNRS, University of Lille, and Ifremer. It was financed under a State-Region plan contract (CPER) by the Hauts-de-France region, the State, Europe and Ifremer, to the tune of 7 million euros.
State-of-the-art equipment to study microplastics
Within the Marco project, ANSES was particularly involved in the “ Quality and safety of aquatic resources “. In particular, she studied the microplastics, in collaboration with Ulco. The project enabled the acquisition of three equipment which make it possible to visualize the microplastics, to characterize the type of polymer which composes them, in order to know their origin, and finally to identify the additives as well as the chemical compounds and the microorganisms which can agglomerate on these microscopic particles. This equipment, shared between ANSES and Ulco, may be used for future research projects national, European and international on microplastics.
Details on the contamination of shellfish and fish
Knowledge was also acquired on the ingestion of microplastics by mussels, cockles and fish. ” We have observed that there is no no more microplastics in mussels and cockles from the coasts of northern France than in other parts of Europe. We had a fear that they would be present in greater quantity, due to the heavy maritime traffic in the Channel explains Guillaume Duflos, Head of the Physical Chemistry of Fishery and Aquaculture Products Unit, at ANSES’s Food Safety Laboratory. Scientists have also shown that the ingestion of microplastics by mussels changes the composition of their microbiota, that is to say the microorganisms they carry. As for fish, it has been shown that very few microplastics are found in their flesh, particles remaining in the digestive system.
Study of fish pathogens
Another section was devoted to parasites, bacteria and chemical contaminants that affect fish. ” We took advantage of the fishing campaigns carried out by Ifremer in the English Channel and in the North Sea to take samples in order to study the fish contamination “says Anne Brisabois. The project also made it possible to study genus bacteria Vibrio in aquaculture. The study was conducted as part of a thesis carried out by the Biochemistry of aquatic products contract unit, associating Ulco and ANSES. Several molecular biology analysis tools acquired within the framework of the project were used to study in detail the diversity of the microbiota of farmed fish. This work aimed to understand the link between the composition of the microbiota and the presence of pathogenic vibrios, to eventually control this contamination in aquaculture.