Microplastic contamination data from mussels from the UK in 2022 dataset https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=009_CEFAS856641f5-81f1-48f0-867d-b2f01018acc4 This dataset records microplastic (MP) contamination in mussels from the UK (7 stations around England and Wales) collected in November 2022. Data includes MP load per mussel, recorded per individual and per gram of tissue wet weight. The dataset is split between six files: fluorescent items only (results per individual, results per gram, and a file describing each item collected e.g. clear filament, 100 microns long, polyethylene) and all items including non-fluorescent items (per individual, per gram, item description). Microlitter (ML) includes non-plastic items such as rubber and cellulose-based fibres. Mass was recorded as wet weight. Also included are text files for long format data used in analysis in R Studio. CleanAtlantic is an Interreg-funded initiative (2017 - 2023) with consortium partners from across Europe, including the UK, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal. The initiative aimed to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Area by improving capabilities to monitor, prevent and remove marine litter. The data here originated from work package: Mapping and modelling of marine litter, action 3: Indicators for ingestion and entanglement. CleanAtlantic was coordinated by CETMAR (Centro Tecnológico del Mar) and included 14 core partners and 4 associated partners. Cefas played a significant role, contributing to multiple work packages and research outputs. This data was collected for CleanAtlantic to determine whether mussels were a suitable sentinel species for microplastics in the North Atlantic. Fluorescent data was compared to mussels from France and Spain. `CleanAtlantic – CleanAtlantic project`_ .. _`cleanatlantic – cleanatlantic project`: https://www.cleanatlantic.eu/ 20241127 20241127