Seabirds are mistaking plastic for food.
Researchers at the University of Gloucestershire in England announced on the 3rd (local time) of last month in the seabird research journal "Seabird" that a large white porcupine (Manx Shearwater) is feeding plastic pieces to its young.
(Picture from Unsplash)
The researchers examined the bodies of 22 large white porcupine adults and 12 babies on Skommer Island, and found a total of 71 plastic pieces smaller than 5mm in the stomachs of 68% of adults and 75% of babies.
Adults have detected a lot of light-colored plastics because they mistake light-colored plastics for their prey, while pups have consumed light-colored plastics as well as dark-colored plastics (Picture: Plastic ingestion in fruit and peeling Manx Shearwaters Puffinus Puffinus/Penguin News)
Large white porcupine adults misunderstand light-colored plastic and fishing tools floating at sea level as food and eat them directly or indirectly consume plastic accumulated in the prey's body.
The baby big white porcupine eats food raised by its parents, and in the process, various colors of plastic were detected because small pieces of plastic in the parents' body move to their babies.
However, since large pieces cannot be discharged from the stomach of the adult, both the adult and the infant can die from organ damage caused by plastic and lack of nutrition.
Conservation biologist Dr. Louise Gentle said, "It's shocking that so much plastic has been detected in babies only a few weeks old."
"The microplastics ingested by these birds show the impact of plastic around the world on the entire marine ecosystem," said Lisa Morgan, director of marine affairs at The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales.
If this continues, 99% of seabirds will have plastic in their stomachs by 2050, he said. "We need to reduce the amount of plastic used in our daily lives and continue to demand drastic measures from the government on plastic problems."
Writer: Yeyoung Jeon
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