Plastics are a ubiquitous pollutant in the marine environment. Despite growing concerns, quantitative and qualitative data on microplastics in aquatic and marine environments of Atlantic Canada is just emerging. Surface water plastics were measured and categorized by morphology (thread, microfibre, fragment, foam, film, pellet, and microbead) in two locations in Nova Scotia and one in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. All sites within the three locations contained plastic with an average abundance of 9669 items/km². Most plastics (68 %) were sized as microplastics (0.425–5 mm), and plastic fragments were the most common morphological type. Polyethylene accounted for a third (30 %) of all particles found across all three locations, followed by polypropylene (23 %). Results can inform future research for community-based environmental groups, government, and academia.

塑料是海洋环境中普遍存在的污染物。尽管越来越受到关注，但有关加拿大大西洋地区水生和海洋环境中微塑料的定量和定性数据才刚刚出现。在新斯科舍省的两个地点和加拿大纽芬兰和拉布拉多的一个地点测量并按形态（线、微纤维、碎片、泡沫、薄膜、颗粒和微珠）对地表水塑料进行分类。这三个地点内的所有地点都含有塑料，平均丰度为 9669 件/km ². 大多数塑料（68%）的大小为微塑料（0.425-5 mm），塑料碎片是最常见的形态类型。在所有三个地点发现的所有颗粒中，聚乙烯占三分之一 (30%)，其次是聚丙烯 (23%)。结果可以为社区环境团体、政府和学术界的未来研究提供信息。