Alexander L. Bond, Jennifer F. Provencher, Pierre-Yves Daoust, Zoe N.
Lucas, Plastic ingestion by fulmars and shearwaters at Sable Island,
Nova Scotia, Canada, Marine Pollution Bulletin, Volume 87, Issues 1?2,
15 October 2014, Pages 68-75, ISSN 0025-326X,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.08.010.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X14005402)
Abstract: Plastic pollution is widespread in the marine environment, and
plastic ingestion by seabirds is now widely reported for dozens of
species. Beached Northern Fulmars, Great Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters
and Cory?s Shearwaters are found on Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada
regularly, and they can be used to assess plastic pollution. All species
except Cory?s Shearwaters contained plastic debris in their
gastrointestinal tracts. Northern Fulmars, Sooty Shearwaters and Great
Shearwaters all showed high prevalence of plastic ingestion (>72%), with
Northern Fulmars having the highest number and mass of plastics among
the species examined. There was no difference in plastic ingestion
between sexes or age classes. In all species user plastics made up the
majority of the pieces found, with industrial pellets representing only
a small proportion in the samples. Sable Island could be an important
monitoring site for plastic pollution in Atlantic Canada.
Keywords: Cory?s Shearwater; Fulmarus glacialis; Great Shearwater;
Northern Fulmar; Puffinus; Sooty Shearwater