Seabirds are coming under increasing threat from plastic waste, with thousands of nests across Britain and Europe found to contain the pollutant, researchers warned. Over four years data on 10,274 nests across the UK, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and the Faroe Islands were studied by the University of the Highland and Islands.Observers visiting seabird colonies for other monitoring activities were asked to help gather data as a cost effective and environmentally friendly way to conduct the study, which discovered 12 per cent of them contained plastic debris.Information was collected from 14 seabird species in 84 colonies between 2016 and 2020, with Atlantic puffins most affected by plastic in their nests, they found.In total 67 per cent of Atlantic puffin nests were found to contain plastic by the Scottish researchers, using data from people studying nests for other purposes.
No data was collected on Atlantic Puffins in the UK as they tend to breed in deep burrows rather than more open nests.This means that it is difficult to record the contents of the nests compared to the shallower nest cavities in places like Norway and Svalbard. Although Atlantic Puffin typically nest in burrows, they can line their nest with small items such as vegetation.Occasional fragments of paper and fishing net have also been reported in burrows in the UK, although that wasn't confirmed by this study.Monitoring burrow nesting species for debris presents different challenges to those nesting on the surface.However visual observation could be made of individuals returning to the burrow with nesting material, whilst endoscope cameras could be used to investigate the presence of debris within accessible burrow nests in future.Dr Neil James, a post-doctoral research associate at the Environmental Research Institute, was one of the scientists involved in the project, and said marine plastic pollution is an increasing global environmental issue.He said it poses a serious threat to marine biodiversity and 'seabirds are particularly affected because of the risk of entanglement or ingestion.''Our study found that a significant number of nests included plastic debris, with some species more likely to incorporate it than others,' Dr James explained.'As well as providing important information about our seabird populations, this type of study can also reveal valuable insights into the prevalence of plastic in the marine environment.'
The extent to which seabirds incorporated debris into their nests across the UK, and northwest Europe, varied by species and location. Cormorants and shags, and the three large gull species, showed a greater tendency to incorporate debris into their nests than other species. Conversely, despite a large number of monitored nests and colonies, only a small number of Black-legged Kittiwake nests were found to contain debris. Although, four colonies had more than 10 per cent of their nest made of debris, indicating that at a local level, particularly where thread-like debris is available, kittiwakes will incorporate debris into their nests. One nest, found on an oil rig in the Norwegian Sea, was nearly half plastic debris, likely due to a lack of local vegetation. The team behind the study said using people already visiting seabird colonies for monitoring purposes to gather scientific data was an effective sollution.It allowed them to study the spread of 'debris over a large geographical scale, and wide range of species' that wouldn't otherwise be possible'Collecting data in this opportunistic way reduced the time and cost that would be required if all the seabird colonies included in this study were visited independently, especially colonies which require considerable planning and effort,' they wrote.It also considerably reduced the amount of carbon emissions that would have been produced if they had to send a researcher to study each nest independently. The cost of collecting the data included in this study by a single researcher would have been about £18,000 and would have involved travelling 13,000 miles.This would have resulted in carbon emissions of 3.76 metric tons, all of which was avoided by using people already visiting the nests to gather extra information.'This approach also removed the potential of additional disturbance to breeding seabirds from extra visits to colonies during the breeding season,' the team said.
Published by dailymail.co.uk
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