Birds are dropping dead off Australia's coast, and it's all our fault

Confronting new images have revealed the cost of Australia's obsession with plastic, with appalled scientists recovering hundreds of fragments from the stomachs of fledgling chicks.

By Nicole Hasham

18 May 2018 — 9:26pm

Deep in their burrows, hungry shearwater chicks on Lord Howe Island await a meal. Their parents have been scouring the sea in search of fish and squid. Instead, they return to feed their babies clothes pegs, bottle tops and Lego pieces.

The flesh-footed sheerwater population at Lord Howe Island is dwindling due to a tidal wave of marine plastic being mistaken for food.

After 90 days the fledglings emerge from their burrows, stomachs bulging with plastic. They prepare for their first flight. Many are so malnourished they die outside the nest. Others make it to the beach, but their undeveloped wings flap in vain and waves engulf them.

Ian Hutton, a naturalist and museum curator on Lord Howe Island, pulls the bodies off the beach. Researchers slice open their stomachs to confirm the cause of death. Once, they found 274 plastic fragments.

“It’s so upsetting to think this bird has been reared by its parents, it’s been fed and it should have a chance to go to sea but it’s died,” he said.

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Nearly 100 sea birds found dead on Albany beaches

Friday, 20 October 2017 3:44AM

More than 80 sea birds have washed up dead on Albany beaches, according to the Conservation Council of WA.

The flesh-footed shearwaters were found washed up dead on Goode and Fisheries Beech on the western side of King George Sound, south of Albany.

Conservation Council of WA Nic Dunlop said the kills may be caused by purse-seine fishing.

“The timing of this Shearwater kill is unusually early, but in every other respect fitted the now familiar pattern of these seabirds being drowned in the purse-seine nets used by the Albany-based South Coast Purse-seine Fishery,” Dr Dunlop said.

“The Flesh-footed Shearwater is a species that has recently shown a dramatic decline in all three of its populations. The species is known to be particularly susceptible as bycatch in a variety of commercial fisheries, to the ingestion of plastics, and to changes in marine climate.

Losing another eighty adult shearwaters from the local breeding population - in addition to around seventy earlier in the year - is a serious conservation issue.

“CCWA has attempted to work cooperatively with the Department of Fisheries to eliminate this problem from the fishery for more than a decade. There was an early reduction in bycatch from thousands to hundreds of individuals but no further progress since then.”

But WA Fishing Industry Council CEO John Harrison has denied that activities by the Albany-based South Coast Purse-seine Fishery are connected to the bird's deaths.

"The recent loss of shearwaters in the Albany region is concerning but WAFIC (based on advice from fishers) does not believe it is linked to purse seine fishing," Mr Harrison says.

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Pelagic Bird Survey surprises Goa with two new birds

Posted by: Navhind Times October 14, 2015 in Buzz

Goa Bird Conservation Network (GBCN) successfully conducted its second pelagic bird survey off the coast of Goa this year with support from Captain of Ports Department, Panaji. The survey was a series of three trips spread over August and September, covering the entire coastal belt of the state. “This time we covered more area and spent more effort than last year to look for birds which are found in the seas of Goa but seldom come to land,” said joint secretary, GBCN Mandar Bhagat.

This survey has been a big success and has resulted in two new bird species, the Swinhoe’s Storm petrel and the Flesh-footed Shearwater being added to the list of birds of Goa. The Swinhoe’s Storm petrel, which has been designated as a Near Threatened Bird by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was recorded in good numbers on the third day of the survey with 21 individuals being counted. Also recorded in unexpectedly high numbers were the Wilson’s Storm petrels who are fondly called the Kangaroos of the Seas by birders due to their unique behaviour of bouncing over waves and literally walking over the surface of the water, a behaviour which is known as pattering! “It was a surreal experience to see these tiny birds fly about so easily over the waves as if they are not affected in any way by the extremities of the open and rough seas,” says member of GBCN Colin Braganza.

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