Jennifer F. Provencher, Alexander L. Bond, April Hedd, William A.
Montevecchi, Sabir Bin Muzaffar, Sarah J. Courchesne, H. Grant
Gilchrist, Sarah E. Jamieson, Flemming R. Merkel, Knud Falk, Jan
Durinck, Mark L. Mallory, Prevalence of marine debris in marine birds
from the North Atlantic, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Available online 15
May 2014, ISSN 0025-326X, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.04.044.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14002707)
Abstract: Marine birds have been found to ingest plastic debris in many
of the world?s oceans. Plastic accumulation data from necropsies
findings and regurgitation studies are presented on 13 species of marine
birds in the North Atlantic, from Georgia, USA to Nunavut, Canada and
east to southwest Greenland and the Norwegian Sea. Of the species
examined, the two surface plungers (great shearwaters Puffinus gravis;
northern fulmars Fulmarus glacialis) had the highest prevalence of
ingested plastic (71% and 51%, respectively). Great shearwaters also had
the most pieces of plastics in their stomachs, with some individuals
containing as many of 36 items. Seven species contained no evidence of
plastic debris. Reporting of baseline data as done here is needed to
ensure that data are available for marine birds over time and space
scales in which we see changes in historical debris patterns in marine
environments (i.e. decades) and among oceanographic regions.
Keywords: Ocean; Plastic; Pollution; North Atlantic; Shearwater; Fulmar