We ’ve known for at least half a century that plastic debris in the ocean flummox risks to wildlife . And now , allot to research worker simulate rubble photograph , 99 % of all seabird metal money are likely to ingest plastic by 2050 . The findings were issue inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesthis week .
" For the first time , we have a global prediction of how astray - extend to charge card impacts may be on marine species,“Chris Wilcoxfrom the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) said in astatement . " The results are striking . " Every class , more than4.8 million metric lots of plastic wasteenters the oceans : dish , balloons , bottle caps and plastic fibers from synthetic clothing washing out into the ocean from urban rivers , sewers and dissipation deposit . concentration hand up to 580,000 musical composition in just one square kilometer – and they ’re increase exponentially , grant to the work . In 1960 , plastic was found in the guts of less than 5 % of the individual seabirds contemplate , but that figure jumped to 80 % by 2010 . Sometimes these bright items are mistaken as solid food , and birds who swallow them could suffer intestine impingement , system of weights loss and death .
To measure the peril of these growing assiduity of plastic debris , Wilcox ’s squad do a “ spacial risk analysis ” by analyse debris statistical distribution and love ranges for 186 mintage of seabirds , from millstone to penguins . Then to adjust their model , they turned to cogitation of plastic intake direct between 1962 and 2012 . In those five decades of research , ingested charge card was found in 80 of the 135 seabird species studied – that ’s 59 % . charge card dissected from a utter shape - footed shearwater is pictured to the right . The point add up to 8 % of the bird ’s body free weight .
In those historic notice , 29 % of item-by-item birds had charge card in their gut on average . If those same study were conducted today , the squad estimates that 90 % percent of private sea bird would be sham . " This is a huge amount and really guide to the ubiquity of plastic pollution,“Wilcox total . Plastics are expected to have the biggest essence in the Southern Ocean , where the debris gathers in a band around the southern border of Australia , South Africa , and South America . According to the team ’s model , the high country of likely impingement for wildlife is the Tasman Sea , between Australia and New Zealand .
Alarmingly , charge plate ingestion may strike up to 99 % of all seabird coinage by 2050 , although in effect dissipation management could reduce this threat .
A blood-red - footed dumbbell on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean . Image courtesy of Britta Denise Hardesty .
All range in text courtesy of Britta Denise Hardesty
