seabirds as indicators of plastic pollution in the north...
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Seabirds as indicators of
plastic pollution in the North
Pacific Hannah Nevins1, 2, David Hyrenbach3, Carol Keiper2,
Jenny Stock4, Michelle Hester2, and Jim Harvey1
1 Coastal Ocean Mammal & Bird Education and Research Surveys (COMBERS), Moss Landing Marine Laboratories of California State Universities, 8272 Moss Landing, Moss Landing, CA 94924 2 Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge, P.O. Box 979, Bolinas, CA 94924 3 Duke University Marine Laboratory, Beaufort, NC 28516 4 Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, PO Box 159, Olema, CA 94950
Plastic Debris Rivers to the Sea Conference, Redondo Beach, CA 7-9 September 2005
Marine Debris Where is it found ?
•! Marine litter occurs everywhere in the world,
both marine and coastal environments.
•! Marine litter is found floating on the water surface.
•! Marine litter is found mixed in the water column.
•! Marine litter is found on the seabed. As much as
70% of the entire input of marine litter sinks to
the bottom both in shallow coastal areas and
in the deeper parts of the ocean.
•! Marine litter is found lying on beaches and shores.
(http://www.marine-litter.gpa.unep.org)
60 to 80% of Marine Debris is PLASTIC
What is a seabird?
•! Make their living in the marine environment
•! Only come to land to breed - often in large colonies on remote
islands
•! Return to breed at island where they were hatched & lay one egg
and raise one chick
•! Long-lived (e.g., Albatross >80 yrs, shearwaters >50 years)
Seabirds are biological indicators of
plastic pollution
•! Seabirds ingest (eat) plastic
•! They feed plastic to their young
•! Some species ingest plastic more often
•! Larger birds ingest larger pieces of plastic
•! There is an increasing trend in the number of species affected and incidence
Seabird Diversity
Four main orders of seabirds:
Sphenisciformes - Penguins
Procellariiformes - Albatrosses & Petrels
Pelecaniformes - Pelicans, Cormorants, Boobies, Frigate birds
Charadriiformes - Gulls, Terns, & Alcids
Penguin
Petrel
Pelican
Alcid
H. Nevins
H. Nevins
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Northern Fulmar
•! Diversified in Southern Hemisphere:200 g storm-petrel to 5 kg albatross.
•! Mainly surface pickers or scavengers, some divers
•! Expend very little energy flying – dynamic soaring, long wings
•! Webbed toes for swimming, taking off from water
•! Highly migratory - Carry food for young concentrated in oily slurry
Sooty
Shearw
ate
r
!! Order Procellariiformes
Laysan Albatross
J. Harv
ey
J. Harv
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J. Harv
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“Tubenoses”
Seabird Feeding Modes
(Ashmole 1971)
Seabirds are top-predators in the
marine ecosystem
Seabirds, Sharks,
& Marine Mammals
Predatory squid & fishes
Forage fishes &
macro- zooplankton
Zooplankton
Phytoplankton
Major Ocean Currents
North Pacific Gyre Alaskan Gyre
Hawaii
Kermadec
Trench/Ridge
Tïtï Islands, NZ
Monterey Bay, CA
Guafo I., Chile
Japan
Adams et al., unpublished data
Satellite-tracked Sooty Shearwaters
•! Tiny scraps of plastic in the chicks of Wilson's
storm petrels in the Antarctic (van Franeker 2005)
•! Cigarette lighters, light-sticks, syringes, toys from
albatross chicks in Hawaii (Kinan 2000)
Many North Pacific seabirds ingest plastics
Wilson’s Storm-petrel Black-footed Albatross
Body & bill size influences
plastic ingestion
Bigger birds with larger bills ingest
larger items
2 – 4 mm (Shearwaters)
3.5 – 4.5 mm (Auklets / Puffins)
11 – 28 mm (Gulls)
20 – 100 mm (Albatrosses)
(Fry 1987, Robards et al. 1995, Kinan 2000)
Leach's storm-petrel
Oceanodroma leucorhoa
Description:
•! Length: 7.5 inches Wingspan: 19 inches
•! Sexes similar, lays one egg.
•! Dark bill with tube on top
•! White rump patch, sometimes divided or missing
•! Feed by pattering feet on surface
Adults may live to be 40-50 yrs. old A chick is hatched after 50-75 days
Plastic ingestion is high 20% in non-breeding area (tropical
Pacific) and 100% in North Pacific Breeding area (Spear et al. 1995)
•! Alaska, Bering Sea (Robards et a. 1995, Vlietstra & Parga 2002)
•! California (Baltz & Morejohn 1976, Nevins et al., this study)
•! Eastern Tropical Pacific (Spear et al. 1995), New Zealnad (Collins 2005)
•! North Sea (Van Franeker & Meijboom 2002)
•! Heard island: Documented in seabirds in 2001 (Auman et al. 2004)
•! Inaccessible island: Increasing 1984 – 1990 (Ryan & Moloney 1993)
Plastics are a global problem for seabirds
Heard Island
Inaccessible
Island
North Sea
North Pacific
New Zealand
Species Plastic
incidence
n increase
Northern Fulmar 58%
84%
38
19
+26%
Tufted Puffin 15%
25%
348
489
+10%
Horned Puffin 37%
37%
148
120
~no
change
Parakeet Auklet 75%
94%
116
208
+18%
Alaskan Seabirds Change between 1969-77 and 1988-90
n = number of birds examined (Robards et al. 1995)
(Robards et al. 1995)
Alaskan seabirds show increases
in plastic ingestion
LESS MORE
•! Increase in proportion of species ingesting plastic from early (1969-1977) to late (1988-1990) time periods
•! 1 diver (red-faced cormorant) and 2 surface feeders (northern fulmar and fork-tailed storm-petrel) had more plastics than during original study
•! Over time, the incidence of plastics has increased much more in surface-feeding than in diving seabirds
•! Adult survival = 0.97
•! Age first breeding = 8-10 years
•! Longevity = 30-40 years
Nevins et al., unpublished data
Sophie Webb
Northern Fulmar
Stomach contents of dead fulmars
collected in California
Source: H. Nevins BeachCOMBERS
New Scientist Magazine (8 January 2005)
Jan Van Franecker, Alterra Marine Lab, Texel, Holland
•! 95% of all fulmars washed up dead
around the North Sea contained fragments
of plastic in their stomachs
•! 71% of 190 stomachs contained
plastic fragments Size = 5.7 ± 2.8 mm, n = 733
Color of user plastic fragments in Northern Fulmar stomachs
Pro
po
rtio
n (
%)
COMBERS data
Northern Fulmar
Satellite Data (n = 3 birds)
"! Post-breeding adults
"! Left colony in Gulf of
Alaska 13-14 Aug 03
"! Movement pattern:
"! Alaskan peninsula
"! Western Gulf of Alaska
"! Coastal B.C., WA, OR, CA
"! We assume this pattern is
representative of the
population
Scott Hatch, USGS-BRD, unpublish. data
Red Phalarope
Phalaropus fulicaria
•! 100% of birds had plastic
(n= 3)
•! Size = 2.6 ± 0.6 mm
•! Type: user plastics, pre-
production pellets
•! Colors: White, black,
green
REPH #662 – Plastics
Albatross Use of Ocean Domains
(Hyrenbach et al. 2002)
Laysan albatross forage more in
subarctic waters, farther north
Black-footed Albatross focus on
subtropical waters, farther south
Plastics are about 10 times more
abundant in the subtropical region
than in the sub-arctic
Plastics are 100 – 1000 times less
abundant in the Bering Sea (Day & Shaw 1987)
Analysis of Albatross Chick Boluses
•! Chicks regurgitate boluses of indigestible matter, which
are analyzed to study diet / plastic ingestion
•! Kure Atoll, Hawaiian Island Chain (Kinan 2000)
–! Analyzed 144 boluses from Laysan and Black-footed
albatrosses
–! Plastic found in every single one (100%)
Contents of a bolus
Photo: C. Vanderlip
Laysan (88 boluses)
average: 33 + 21 g plastic
- 19% had lighters
- 1% had light-sticks
Black-footed (56 boluses)
78 + 38 g plastic
- 0 had lighters
- 0 had light sticks
Albatross Bolus Analysis
(Kinan 2000)
Monofilament line Lighters and plastic bits Squid beaks and plastic
debris
•! Laysan Albatross (n = 9), Kure Atoll, Hawaiian Island
Chain
•! 100% Plastic ingestion
•! 33% of birds contained cigarette lighters
•! Mean mass: 151 + 79 g Maximum: 475 g
(Kinan 2000)
Chick Stomach Analysis
90% of floating marine debris is plastic 2.5
cm
1
inch Photos: Kathy Cousins / Irene Kinan
Are pollutant levels directly related to plastics ?
Polyethylene pellets lost 1% of their mass after 12 days
in the birds' stomachs, suggesting a half-life of one year
(Ryan & Jackson 1987)
The mass of ingested plastic was correlated with PCBs,
a group of chemicals commonly found in plastics
(Ryan et al. 1988)
It is probable that long-lived seabirds assimilate PCBs and
other toxic chemicals from ingested plastic particles
Effects: long-term
Large Plastic Items:
•! Cuts / abrasions: infection (Sievert & Sileo 1993)
•! Fill up / obstruct the stomach (Dickerman & Goelet 1987)
Small Plastic Items:
•! Reduce meal size and food consumption (Ryan 1988)
•! Reduce the storage volume of the stomach (Ryan 1988)
•! Little evidence of impaired digestive efficiency
•! No instances of plastic causing intestinal obstruction
•! Few cases of physical damage to the stomach lining
(Ryan & Jackson 1987)
Effects: short-term
Royal Albatross
© BirdLife
"What can we do? People just have to stop putting
rubbish into the sea” —Janice Molloy, The Department of Conservation, New Zealand
Pink-footed Shearwater © Michelle Wainstein
•! Increase understanding of marine wildlife –! Teacher workshops
–! Public events
–! Collaborate with existing sanctuary and coastal commission programs
•! Promote stewardship by providing a tangible example of how coastal watershed & beach clean-ups can make a difference
•! Link conservation activities with science via online satellite tracking of Sooty Shearwaters & Black-footed Albatross
Science integration via web-
based interactive maps
•! Collaboration with
researchers (TOPP,
MLML, Duke ML, NOAA, Oikonos)
•! www.Seaturtle.org host
real-time data
•! Oikonos provides
content
•! Signalsofspring.net
provides curricula
Seabird Quiz •! Which foraging mode is most likely to incur the
great incidence of plastic?
a) diving, b) surface-feeding, c) plunging
•! Which seabirds are likely to ingest cigarette lighters?
a) fulmars, b) phalaropes, c) albatrosses
•! Are seabirds living in remote islands free from plastic pollution?
Yes or No
AAD
AAD
AAD
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