a quarter of all plastics found in the open seas, swallowed by seabirds, where the action of countries and laws does not come. Pollution from plastics threatens marine life and only when it occurs in international waters The solution to the problem is in no one’s hands.
This was determined by a study published in the journal Science. Nature CommunicationAfter analyzing the movements of 7,137 birds, Marine pollution caused by these elements is found precisely in the path these animals follow in search of food.
Large deposits of plastic in the open seas are largely made up of systems of large ocean currents swirling on themselves and creating large concentrations of this waste. These huge ‘islands of plastic’ offshore are fed by waste from ships and from many different countries.
“Ocean currents huge swirls of plastic garbage pile up far from the world, out of sight and outside the jurisdiction of any country”, reveals Lizzie Pearmain of the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey and co-author of the study.
This comprehensive study evaluated the movements of 7,137 birds from 77 bird species, a widely distributed group of migratory seabirds, including the northern fulmar, petrel, and Newell’s shearwater. All are critically endangered. Monitoring data for these seabirds and global maps of the distribution of plastic in the oceans show that pollution from this material is one of the biggest threats to marine life.
“Many bird species spend a significant amount of time feeding around these mid-ocean eddies, which puts them at risk of ingesting plastic debris,” insists Pearmain.
And there is so much plastic in the sea, seabirds often mistake small pieces of this material for food, when they do not swallow it indirectly through their prey that eventually swallowed it.
It is well documented that plastic consumption causes injury, poisoning, and starvation in these animals. Worse still, bird species are at even greater risk because they cannot vomit plastic easily. “When storms eat plastic, it can get stuck in their stomach, but they can unintentionally feed it to their chicks,” explains Pearmain.
Petrels are a large group of understudied but highly vulnerable marine species that play an important role in ocean food webs. Their distribution in the ocean makes them important “guard species” when assessing plastic pollution risks in the marine environment.
Added threats to others
Petrels and other seabird species are already in danger of extinction due to climate change, accidental predation, competition with fish, and invasive species such as mice and rats in breeding colonies. Ingesting the plastic will only speed up this process, as it reduces the birds’ resistance to confront other conditions that threaten them.
In the eyes of Bethany Clark, co-author of the paper and president of Seabirds at Birdlife International, these results “underline the need for international collaboration to address plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.” “Many bird species are at risk of exposure to plastic in the waters and open seas of various countries during their migration,” the scientist recalls.
“Even species at low risk of exposure have been found to eat plastic. BirdLife International Seabird Scientist and co-author of the study, Dr.
Reference article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38900-z
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