Marine plastic is taking its toll on Grassholm Island's gannets

9th May

By David Lynch  @Davidintherain Reporter

VOLUNTEERS are risking their lives to save seabirds from plastic pollution on one of Pembrokeshire’s islands, according to a photographer.

Bristol-based wildlife photographer Sam Hobson visited Grassholm Island, eight miles off the Pembrokeshire coast, to document an RSPB rescue mission to cut free gannets entangled in manmade waste.

While on the island, which is a breeding ground for 36,000 gannet pairs, he took a photograph of one of the birds with trapped in a net.

"This panicked adult gannet struggled as it dangled from a cliff side, with ropes twisted around its neck like a hangman's noose.

"The brave volunteers risked their own lives to creep to the edge of the cliff top and rescue this bird from its death sentence," Mr Hobson told the BBC.

The birds fly out to sea to collect seaweed to line their nest, but often pick up piece of plastic and other manmade waste.

"The gannets line their nests with these man-made plastic fibres and their nests become death-traps, entangling adult birds and juveniles as they develop inside the nest," Mr Hobson added.

There are an estimated 20 tonnes of plastic waste on Grassholm Island.

Continued

New Zealand the most perilous place for seabirds due to plastic pollution

‘Seabird capital of the world’ is home to dozens of endemic species, which are particularly vulnerable to plastics

Eleanor Ainge Roy in Dunedin

Mon 2 Jul 2018 07.18 BSTFirst published on Mon 2 Jul 201806.40 BST

Seabirds are more at risk of dying due to plastic in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, new research presented to parliament has shown.

New Zealand is considered “the seabird capital of the world”, according to the country’s Department of Conservation, with the northern royal albatross raising their chicks on the Otago Peninsula, unique species of oystercatchers on the Chatham Islands and more penguin species than any country in the world.

There are 36 seabird species that breed only in New Zealand. Mexico is a distant second with just five. More than a third of all seabird species are known to spend time in New Zealand’s waters.

Karen Baird from conservation group Forest & Bird, which produced the report, said: “Rubbish that ends up in our seas has a far worse effect on seabird species than anywhere else in the world.”

“Even though we don’t have the most plastic pollution, we are unique in the world in having so many seabirds species. We also have the most threatened seabird species, many of which are found nowhere else.”

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