Bits of plastic debris litter the shore: bottle caps, toys, cigarette lighters, fishing line and other garbage. Scientists are now documenting how this surge of plastic trash leaves a wake of death and disease that directly affects seabirds.
In many areas of the globe, birds inadvertently feed on plastic floating on the water, mistaking it for food, and many times this ingestion leads to death and even the death of their young. A report by scientists studying the stomach content of Laysan Albatross chicks on Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean revealed disturbing results: Forty percent of Laysan Albatross chicks die before fledging. Necropsies of the chick's stomachs found them filled with plastic trash. (See photo to right of Laysan Albatrosses nesting among plastic debris on Midway Atoll)
The global oil spill is plastic
Large plastic detritus such as bottles and packaging has
well-known effects on sea life, strangling birds and fish and
transporting alien species to new waters. Millimeter-sized plastic
pellets-the building blocks of larger products-clog U.S. harbors
and soak up toxic chemicals from seawater, poisoning the creatures
that swallow them.
Because plastic pellets are magnets for toxic chemicals like DDT
and PCBs, they effectively become poison pills. Japanese
researchers found that concentrations of these chemicals were as
much as a million times higher than in the water. Plastics
themselves can leach endocrine-disrupting chemicals like
biphenyl.
Especially lethal is discarded fishing gear. Millions of tons of
cut line, lines with hooks, and nets litter our oceans causing
cause slow, painful deaths to everything from tiny seabirds to
whales. Many of the birds that come to International Bird Rescue's
rehabilitation centers are impacted by fishing line and hooks,
having ingested and/or been debilitated by carelessly discarded
monofilament line that has wrapped around their limbs and
wings.
