Seabird SOS

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/uoc--ss083115.php

Public Release: 31-Aug-2015
Seabird SOS
A new study inspired by a working group at NCEAS estimates that almost all seabirds have eaten plastic
University of California - Santa Barbara

Plastic debris in the ocean has been an environmental issue for almost half a century. Now, for the first time, scientists can predict the global impact of plastics on avian marine species -- and it isn't pretty.

A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimates that 90 percent of individual seabirds alive today have consumed some form of plastic. "This is a huge amount and really points to the ubiquity of plastic pollution," said lead author Chris Wilcox, a senior research scientist at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship.

Wilcox also contributed to a study published earlier this year that found more than 4.8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans from land each year. Both studies were conducted by the same working group at UC Santa Barbara's National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) and supported by Washington, D.C.-based Ocean Conservancy.

•••••