Prevalence of marine debris in marine birds from the North Atlantic

Marine birds have been found to ingest plastic debris in many of the world’s oceans. Plastic accumulation data from necropsies findings and regurgitation studies are presented on 13 species of marine birds in the North Atlantic, from Georgia, USA to Nunavut, Canada and east to southwest Greenland an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Pollution Bulletin
Main Authors: Provencher, Jennifer F., Bond, Alexander L., Hedd, April, Montevecchi, William A., Muzaffar, Sabir Bin, Courchesne, Sarah J., Gilchrist, H. Grant, Jamieson, Sarah E., Merkel, Flemming R., Falk, Knud, Durinck, Jan, Mallory, Mark L.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2014
Subjects:
Fulmarus glacialis
Greenland
North Atlantic
Norwegian Sea
Nunavut
Online Access:https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/en/publications/25f4324c-a000-4ca2-9c48-a901b0b92994
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.044
https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0025326X14002707
Description
Summary:Marine birds have been found to ingest plastic debris in many of the world’s oceans. Plastic accumulation data from necropsies findings and regurgitation studies are presented on 13 species of marine birds in the North Atlantic, from Georgia, USA to Nunavut, Canada and east to southwest Greenland and the Norwegian Sea. Of the species examined, the two surface plungers (great shearwaters Puffinus gravis; northern fulmars Fulmarus glacialis) had the highest prevalence of ingested plastic (71% and 51%, respectively). Great shearwaters also had the most pieces of plastics in their stomachs, with some individuals containing as many of 36 items. Seven species contained no evidence of plastic debris. Reporting of baseline data as done here is needed to ensure that data are available for marine birds over time and space scales in which we see changes in historical debris patterns in marine environments (i.e. decades) and among oceanographic regions.

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