Prevalence of microplastics in the marine waters of Qatar

•Extraction technique from plankton-rich seawater was validated and optimized.•Occurrence of MP was documented for the first time in marine waters of Qatar.•Thirty microplastic polymers were characterized including copolymer.•9 out of 30 microplastics were identified as polypropylene using ATR-FTIR.

Microplastics are firmly recognized as a ubiquitous and growing threat to marine biota and their associated marine habitats worldwide. The evidence of the prevalence of microplastics was documented for the first time in the marine waters of Qatar's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). An optimized and validated protocol was developed for the extraction of microplastics from plankton-rich seawater samples without loss of microplastic debris present and characterized using Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. In total 30 microplastic polymers have been identified with an average concentration of 0.71 particles m− 3 (range 0–3 particles m− 3). Polypropylene, low density polyethylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyamide, polymethyl methacrylate, cellophane, and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene polymers were characterized with majority of the microplastics either granular shape, sizes ranging from 125 μm to 1.82 mm or fibrous with sizes from 150 μm to 15.98 mm. The microplastics are evident in areas where nearby anthropogenic activities, including oil-rig installations and shipping operations are present.