Natural History Wanderings

The American Bird Conservancy reported that a joint U.S. and Canadian study of seabirds off the coast of Washington State and British Columbia revealed that they are ingesting plastic at ever-increasing rates. They stated  that the birds plastic intake  is  “among the highest” in the world.

“The researchers found that the dead birds had ingested an average of 0.385 grams of plastic in the 2009/2010 study, compared to 0.12 grams in a 1987 study and 0.04 grams in a 1969 -1977 study. The incidence of plastic ingestion is also on an upward trend. A 1968-1977 study found that 57.9 percent of the studied fulmars had ingested plastic, compared to 84.2 percent in 1988-1989 and 92.5 percent in 2009-2010.”