Plastic debris choking remote seabird population
By Anthony Clark Posted 4 November 2009 10:41 am GMT
Researchers at the University of Hawaii have found plastic in the guts of remote seabird populations
Ocean-bound plastic waste is being ingested for seabirds living in some of the most remote parts of the world. According to research published in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS One, albatross chicks living on the remote Kure Atoll in the Pacific Ocean swallow 10 times more plastic than chicks living on the Hawaiian chain.
The research authors, based at University of Hawaii, say the reason for this is that the Kure birds look for food in the ‘Western Garbage Patch’, a large region of floating plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean between Japan and Hawaii.
The University of Hawaii’s Lindsay Young said: "It is surprising that a colony that is so near to a city of a million people had so much less plastic consumption than a colony that is literally the most remote atoll in the world."
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