The oceans are full of plastic, but why do seabirds eat it?

The oceans are full of plastic, but why do seabirds eat it?

Posted on November 10, 2016 by DrRossH in Plastic & Wildlife

Thousands of seabirds die every year from consuming plastic trash in the oceans. But why do they eat plastic? New research shows that it produces odors that help some species find prey.

Source: The oceans are full of plastic, but why do seabirds eat it?

Imagine that you are constantly eating, but slowly starving to death. Hundreds of species of marine mammals, fish, birds, and sea turtles face this risk every day when they mistake plastic debris for food.

Plastic debris can be found in oceans around the world. Scientists have estimated that there are over five trillion pieces of plastic weighing more than a quarter of a million tons floating at sea globally. Most of this plastic debris comes from sources on land and ends up in oceans and bays due largely to poor waste management.

Plastic does not biodegrade, but at sea large pieces of plastic break down into increasingly smaller fragments that are easy for animals to consume. Nothing good comes to animals that mistake plastic for a meal. They may suffer from malnutrition, intestinal blockage, or slow poisoning from chemicals in or attached to the plastic.

Here in Port Phillip Bay of Melbourne Australia, we’ve calculated there are about 1 billion pieces of plastic washing out every year.   For such a small body of water this is terrifying.