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Scientists warn almost all seabirds will ingest plastic by 2050


The CSIRO is warning 99 per cent of the world's seabirds species will be ingesting plastic by 2050 if current marine pollution trends continue.

A study by researchers from the CSIRO and Imperial College London found the percentage of birds consuming plastic in marine environments was increasing at an alarming rate.

The study's lead author, Doctor Chris Wilcox, said evidence suggested almost 80 per cent of seabird species were ingesting plastic, and 90 per cent of birds in those species had plastics in their gut.

"It's gone up from about 20 per cent [of birds] or less in the early 60s," he said.

"From the analysis we did, there's no clear reason to expect that trend will change and we estimate that by 2050 you could say that all of seabirds species will be affected by plastic ingestion.

"I think I and my co-authors were rather shocked when we started to get the numbers back."

Dr Wilcox and his colleagues created a map of plastic debris in marine environments and looked at where seabirds were found.

They then compared those maps with the data of nearly 100 studies published since the 1960s which detailed the rate of plastic ingestion by certain bird species.

The highest risk areas are along the southern edges of Australia, South Africa and South America, where larger bird populations encounter significant amounts of debris.

But globally the most dangerous location for seabirds is in the south Tasman sea.

"[That's] because it's the intersection of a reasonable density of plastic and a lot of seabirds," he said.

"But ultimately it's a sign we're putting a lot more plastic in the ocean.

"A recent study estimated we put 8.4 million tonnes of plastic in the ocean per year and that number's increasing."

Dr Wilcox said larger seabirds like penguins and giant albatrosses were more likely to have plastic in their stomachs and nearly any type of plastic was being mistaken for food.

"We found toothbrushes, doll arms, cigarette lighters, the little ties on the bottoms of balloons — pretty much anything that can fit inside a seabird, we've found in a seabird."

A Senate standing committee on the environment inquiry into the threat of marine plastic pollution in Australia is expected to hand down its findings in April 2016.

But Environmental groups say the CSIRO's research is evidence more global action is needed to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in the ocean.

Plastic fragments wash up on Christmas Island
Scientists have mapped plastic debris in marine environments and compared the location of seabirds.(Supplied: Britta Denise Hardesty)

"It's terrifying that researchers have predicted that 99 per cent of seabirds will have plastic in their stomachs by 2050," Kate Simpson from the Australian Marine Conversation Society said.

"We know plastic is a problem for our marine life which can be lethal to them and it's not just birds either.

"The problem with plastic is we know it never truly goes away it just breaks down into smaller pieces."

Earlier this year, a group of volunteers collected a record 79,000 pieces of rubbish, mostly plastics, from isolated beaches in south-west Tasmania, as part of an annual effort to clean-up the coastal environment.

Rebecca Hubbard from Environment Tasmania said it was disappointing to see the problem get worse.

"It's seems that is definitely getting worse and it makes sense because we are producing more plastic than ever before in the world," she said.

"And we still aren't recycling or reusing all of that plastic so a lot of it is ending up in the ocean.

"There's been national efforts to clean up plastic debris off our beaches and they have found more and more plastic debris, even in our most remote areas.

"So it is very, very concerning."


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