June 11, 2018, 6:42 am
The study has caused some
concern.
Two tonnes of plastic have been
found in the stomachs of fulmar birds around the North Sea.
Helen Moncrieff, Shetland manager
at RSPB Scotland, said every single dead bird they analysed as part of a study
contained a “lunchbox full of plastic”.
She was speaking ahead of a
summit in Oban next week on tackling marine litter, which will be hosted by
Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham.
Scotland is home to a third of
the European Union’s breeding seabirds, with the islands having traditionally
hosted huge colonies.
However, concerns about the
impact of plastic pollution are growing, and climate change has been blamed for
a catastrophic collapse in seabird numbers.
Speaking at a fringe event at the
SNP conference in Aberdeen, Ms Momcrieff said: “The mallies (fulmars), there is
a long-term study going on in the north Atlantic and the North Sea
particularly, with a whole lot of countries involved.
“Every month we go out and we
check, do a beach bird survey, and any fulmar or mallie we find intact we take
it, stick it in the freezer and then the stomach contents are analysed later
on.
“What we find is there’s plastic
in every single mallie’s belly.
“It’s like having a lunchbox full
of plastic in your stomach. We calculated that there’s around two tonnes of
plastic in fulmar bellies alone.”
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