About 90% of seabirds have ingested some kind of harmful plastic debris. That percentage has now risen unfortunately higher than when it was approximately 5% in 1960. Ingesting plastic causes build up which leads to gut impaction, which is one of the main killers of seabirds. In order to decrease the amount of plastic ingested, the "hotspots" must be identified. (Which is where the most seabirds are found.) The solution to this problem is actually quite simple- if the flow of plastic is significantly reduced from being thrown out into the ocean, the likelihood of swallowing harmful material is decreased, leaving the birds more time to recover from swallowing other plastics.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34108017
Agh I'm very sympathetic to environmental cleanup because of this exactly. When debris harms wildlife, it disturbs whole ecosystems. I agree, the simplest solution is to reduce the flow of plastic debris.
ReplyDelete-Bethany Wolfe 3rd
Desiree smith
ReplyDeleteI don't think people even care about the situation. People throw plastic bags everywhere and it happen to end up in the ocean I'm guessing. I also think paying for plastic bag was a good and a bad idea. The bad is.....well you have to pay for a bag but the good thing is that people were not buying it which lower the chance of plastic bags getting in the ocean and killing seabirds.