15/03/2019
A new
study has found that balloons are the highest-risk plastic debris item for
seabirds, being 32 times more likely to kill them than ingesting hard plastics.
Researchers
from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Antarctic Climate
& Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) looked at the cause of
death of 1,733 seabirds from 51 species and found that one in three of the
birds had ingested marine debris. The data showed that a seabird ingesting a
single piece of plastic had a 20 per cent chance of mortality, rising to 50 per
cent for nine items and 100 per cent for 93 items.
Led by
former IMAS-CSIRO PhD student Dr Lauren Roman and published in the journal Scientific
Reports, the study found that although hard plastic accounts for the vast
majority of debris ingested, it is far less likely to kill than soft plastics
such as balloons.
Dr Roman
commented: "Marine debris ingestion is now a globally recognised threat.
However, the relationship between the amount or type of debris that a seabird
ingests and mortality remains poorly understood. Among the birds we studied the
leading cause of death was blockage of the gastrointestinal tract, followed by
infections or other complications caused by gastrointestinal obstructions.
"Although
soft plastics accounted for just 5 per cent of the items ingested, they were
responsible for more than 40 per cent of the mortalities. Balloons or balloon
fragments were the marine debris most likely to cause mortality, and they
killed almost one in five of the seabirds that ingested them.
"As
similar research into plastic ingestion by sea turtles has found, it appears
that while hard plastic fragments may pass quickly through the gut, soft
plastics are more likely to become compacted and cause fatal
obstructions."
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