Faculty of Science- University of Cape Town. Caption: Minimal change in plastic pollution levels in seabirds found, according to UCT studies
Minimal change in plastic pollution levels in seabirds found, according to UCT studies.
(The Post News)- Researchers at the University of Cape Town’s Fitzpatrick Institute of Faculty of Science- University of Cape Town. Caption: Minimal change in plastic pollution levels in seabirds found, according to UCT studies Ornithology has conducted a new study, revealing the amount of plastic in petrels nesting in Inaccessible Island in the South Atlantic Ocean has remained steady since the 1980s.
These studies have been published in the journal Science if the Total Environment. Petrels have the ability to serve as markers of plastic contamination at sea. Fulmars that breed near more populated places are most likely to have more plastic in their bodies than those who reproduce in remote Arctic regions.
With the frequent increase in global plastic production since the 1950s, it has been predicted by researchers that plastic accumulation in petrels would increase over time.
Veronica Perold, PhD student who had led the study says seabirds constantly consume these plastic fragments directly or in their food, furthermore among seabirds, the highest ingested plastic loads typically are found in petrels, which have the ability to store plastics in their stomachs for weeks or months. She confirms petrels are among the first organisms found to contain plastics in 1960, and since then, almost all petrel species examined have been found to contain plastic.
Perold used samples which were collected in 1987 by Emeritus Professor Peter Ryan who conducted research into the issue.
Professor Ryan says the global plastic production has increased more than four-fold over the study period, so the failure to detect an increase in the amount of plastic in petrels sampled in the same way at the same site for over 30 years was surprising, he says their findings suggest the efforts to limit waste plastic entering the environment have been at least partly successful, which reduce the proportion of plastic leaking into the sea over this period.
He says when the study commenced, dumping of plastics was still permitted, and lax regulations on plastic converters have resulted in a large quantity of industrial pellets into the sea.
Soon after, several projects were then launched in order to prevent plastic leakage and clean up plastics in the environment. These efforts for the seabirds in the South Atlantic seem to have largely balanced out the increase in plastic production.
Ryan says there is room for even stricter controls to reduce waste plastic leakage, and in particular to reduce the amount of plastic of plastic used in single-use applications. He says continued of plastic in seabirds will help determine the efficacy of further efforts which include the UN Plastic Treaty which is currently being negotiated.
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