New Study Warns Nine In 10 Sea Birds Ingested Plastic

Nine in every 10 sea birds today have plastic in their bellies, a new study reveals while estimating the number could increase to include nearly all sea birds by 2050.

According to BBC, just about 5 % of sea birds were estimated to have plastic in their bodies in 1960 which has shot up to include 90 percent of the birds today. If plastic pollution of oceans continues unabated, 99 percent of the birds would be affected, researchers aver. The situation is however quickly reversible if the amount of plastic that finds its way into the oceans is reduced. Plastic waste in the stomach affects a bird's digestion and lowers its food intake, forcing it to die of starvation.

"For the first time, we have a global prediction of how wide-reaching plastic impacts may be on marine species - and the results are striking," said Chris Wilcox, a senior research scientist at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia

"We predict, using historical observations, that 90% of individual seabirds have eaten plastic. This is a huge amount and really points to the ubiquity of plastic pollution."

Dr. Wilcox and team, including scientists from Imperial College London, ran computer simulation models to understand how sea birds would be affected in the future. They found a grim fate awaits avian species in the southern oceans where large diversity of species exist. Birds most at risk include albatrosses, shearwaters and penguins.

The study however has a silver lining of hope. It suggests that the plastic waste problem can be quickly fixed.

"Even simple measures can make a difference. Efforts to reduce plastics losses into the environment in Europe resulted in measureable changes in plastic in seabird stomachs with less than a decade, which suggests that improvements in basic waste management can reduce plastic in the environment in a really short time," said co-author Denise Hardesty who found as many as 20 pieces of plastic inside one bird.