Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 187, Issue -, Pages 124-129Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2013.12.020
Keywords
Body condition; Flesh-footed Shearwater; Marine debris; Plastic ingestion; Trace metals
Categories
Funding
- Birdlife Tasmania, Environment Canada
- National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Save our Shearwaters Foundation
- Trading Consultants Ltd, V. Wellington
- W.V. Scott Charitable Trust
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To provide much needed quantitative data on the lethal and sublethal effects of plastic pollution on marine wildlife, we sampled breast feathers and stomach contents from Flesh-footed Shearwater (Puffinus carneipes) fledglings in eastern Australia. Birds with high levels of ingested plastic exhibited reduced body condition and increased contaminant load (p < 0.05). More than 60% of fledglings exceed international targets for plastic ingestion by seabirds, with 16% of fledglings failing these targets after a single feeding (range: 0.13-3.21 g of plastic/feeding). As top predators, seabirds are considered sentinels of the marine environment. The amount of plastic ingested and corresponding damage to Flesh-footed Shearwater fledglings is the highest reported for any marine vertebrate, suggesting the condition of the Australian marine environment is poor. These findings help explain the ongoing decline of this species and are worrying in light of increasing levels of plastic pollution in our oceans. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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