Image: Noah Kahn/USFWS
Seabirds around the globe are dying, and humans are to blame.
Though not on purpose, people around the world – even those living hundreds of miles from the coasts – are drastically altering the diet of seabirds.
But how?
Birds that once thrived in the marine environment are mistakenly eating our plastic trash instead of their natural diet of fish, fish eggs, and crustaceans; and it’s killing them.
A study found that an estimated 90 percent of all seabirds have a belly full of plastic. All of this plastic takes up room in their stomachs making them feel too full to eat, creates blockages, and exposes them to a variety of toxic chemicals that plastics absorb.
Image: Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii
Most seabirds have evolved to rapidly devour their food in an effort to keep it from getting away. This approach, combined with the fact that bird’s natural food sources (like fish eggs) are often attached to plastic, causes them to ingest large quantities on a daily basis.
The plastics found in the seabird’s digestive tracts range from bottle caps to bags to cigarette lighters. These fragments wash out to sea through rivers and sewer systems.
Biologist Boris Worm explained, “They mistake them for food when skimming surface waters, searching for visible particles.”
What’s worse, well-meaning parents will regurgitate this plastic to feed their chicks.
Unlike adults, chicks are unable to regurgitate anything.
This is a terrible reality, but there are things we can do to help:
Limit your plastic. What you do use, make the effort to recycle.
Start or join a cleanup effort. The majority of trash that isn’t properly disposed of eventually finds its way to the ocean through waterways. Every single piece of trash you pick up will be one less piece floating around in the ocean to be mistakenly eaten by seabirds and other marine animals.
We can all do our part.
