Non-food stomach content found in a northern fulmar bird in a University of British Columbia study is shown in a handout photo. Researchers at the University of B.C. say plastic pollution off the Pacific coast has reached the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea. Plastic found in the stomach of some birds included twine, candy wrappers and Styrofoam which reached five per cent of their body weight. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Stephanie Avery-Gomm, UBC
July 04, 2012 - 2:53 PM
VANCOUVER - A new study suggests the stomach contents of seabirds show there's been a big increase in plastic pollution off the northwest coast of North America over the past four decades.
University of B.C. researcher Stephanie Avery-Gomm says the amount of plastic a seabird eats provides a snapshot of the garbage that ends up in a big part of the northern Pacific Ocean.
Avery-Gomm says necropsies performed on 67 beached northern fulmars, a gull-like seabird, showed nearly 93 per cent of them had bellyfuls of plastic — everything from twine, Styrofoam and candy wrappers.
She says one bird had 454 pieces of plastic in its gut.
The study that's been published online in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin examined the stomach contents of birds on the coasts of B.C., Washington and Oregon.
Avery-Gomm says the amount of plastic found in the birds is similar to the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea, and that the issue suggests plastic pollution should be monitored annually.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012