World's most threatened seabirds visit remote plastic pollution hotspots


Date:
July 4, 2023
Source:
University of Cambridge
Summary:
Analysis of global tracking data for 77 species of petrel has
revealed that a quarter of all plastics potentially encountered
in their search for food are in remote international waters --
requiring international collaboration to address.


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The extensive study assessed the movements of 7,137 individual birds
from 77 species of petrel, a group of wide-ranging migratory seabirds
including the Northern Fulmar and European Storm-petrel, and the
Critically Endangered Newell's Shearwater.

This is the first time that tracking data for so many seabird species
has been combined and overlaid onto global maps of plastic distribution
in the oceans.

The results show that plastic pollution threatens marine life on a
scale that transcends national boundaries: a quarter of all plastic
exposure risk occurs in the high seas. This is largely linked to gyres --
large systems of rotating ocean currents -- where vast accumulations of plastics form, fed by waste entering the sea from boats, and from many different countries.

Seabirds often mistake small plastic fragments for food, or ingest
plastic that has already been eaten by their prey. This can lead to
injury, poisoning and starvation, and petrels are particularly vulnerable because they can't easily regurgitate the plastic. In the breeding season
they often inadvertently feed plastic to their chicks.

Plastics can also contain toxic chemicals that can be harmful to seabirds.

Petrels are an understudied but vulnerable group of marine species, which
play a key role in oceanic food webs. The breadth of their distribution
across the whole ocean makes them important 'sentinel species' when
assessing the risks of plastic pollution in the marine environment.

"Ocean currents cause big swirling collections of plastic rubbish to
accumulate far from land, way out of sight and beyond the jurisdiction
of any one country.

We found that many species of petrel spend considerable amounts of time
feeding around these mid-ocean gyres, which puts them at high risk of
ingesting plastic debris," said Lizzie Pearmain, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology and the British Antarctic Survey, and joint corresponding author of the study.

She added: "When petrels eat plastic, it can get stuck in their stomachs
and be fed to their chicks. This leaves less space for food, and can
cause internal injuries or release toxins." Petrels and other species
are already threatened with extinction due to climate change, bycatch, competition with fisheries, and invasive species such as mice and rats
on their breeding colonies. The researchers say exposure to plastics
may reduce the birds' resilience to these other threats.

The north-east Pacific, South Atlantic, and the south-west Indian
oceans have mid-ocean gyres full of plastic waste, where many species
of threatened seabird forage.

"Even species with low exposure risk have been found to eat plastic. This
shows that plastic levels in the ocean are a problem for seabirds
worldwide, even outside of these high exposure areas," said Dr Bethany
Clark, Seabird Science Officer at BirdLife International and joint corresponding author of the study.

She added: "Many petrel species risk exposure to plastic in the waters
of several countries and the high seas during their migrations. Due
to ocean currents, this plastic debris often ends up far away from its
original source.

This highlights the need for international cooperation to tackle
plastic pollution in the world's oceans." The study also found that
the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea together account for over half
of petrels' global plastic exposure risk. However, only four species of
petrel forage in these enclosed, busy areas.

The study was led by a partnership between the University of Cambridge, BirdLife International and the British Antarctic Survey, in collaboration
with Fauna & Flora International, the 5 Gyres Institute, and over 200
seabird researchers in 27 countries.

It is published today in the journal Nature Communications.

To get their results, the researchers overlaid global location data,
taken from tracking devices attached to the birds, onto pre-existing
maps of marine plastic distribution. This allowed them to identify the
areas on the birds' migration and foraging journeys where they are most
likely to encounter plastics.

Species were given an 'exposure risk score' to indicate their risk
of encountering plastic during their time at sea. A number of already threatened species scored highly, including the Critically Endangered
Balearic Shearwater, which breeds in the Mediterranean, and Newell's Shearwater, endemic to Hawaii.

Another Endangered species, the Hawaiian Petrel also scored high for
plastic exposure risk, as did three species classified by the IUCN as Vulnerable: the Yelkouan Shearwater, which breeds in the Mediterranean;
Cook's Petrel,which breeds in New Zealand, and the Spectacled Petrel,
which only breeds on an extinct volcano called Inaccessible Island,
part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, a UK Overseas Territory.

"While the population-level effects of plastic exposure are not yet known
for most species, many petrels and other marine species are already in
a precarious situation. Continued exposure to potentially dangerous
plastics adds to the pressures," said Professor Andrea Manica at the
University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology, a co-author of the study.

He added: "This study is a big leap forward in understanding the
situation, and our results will feed into conservation work to try and
address the threats to birds at sea." This research was funded by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative's Collaborative Fund for Conservation, sponsored by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and the Natural Environment Research Council.

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10.1038/s41467-023-38900-z ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/07/230704110939.htm

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