Plastic Pollution Crisis Deepens as Seabirds on Lord Howe Island Ingest Record Amounts of Debris
Scientists at Adrift Lab have revealed a troubling increase in plastic ingestion by flesh-footed shearwaters on Lord Howe Island, a remote Australian paradise. After 16 years of research, a recent study documented one young shearwater with 894 pieces of plastic in its stomach, weighing 64.2 grams, which is over 15% of its average body weight. This record-setting incident follows a trend of increasing plastic accumulation in these birds, with previous findings in 2011 of 276 pieces in a chick and 400 pieces in a young shearwater in 2023. Alex Bond, Principal Curator of Birds at the Natural History Museum in the UK, noted that the plastic crisis is worsening, and current actions are insufficient to address it. Experts warn that even with an ambitious global plastics treaty, ocean waste volume is projected to grow until 2050.
