For the first time, British and Australian researchers have discovered a new disease in seabirds caused entirely by plastic. The researchers believe that their findings may be just the tip of the iceberg given the prevalence of plastic pollution in nature, and other birds may also be affected.
For the past 10 years, researchers from the Natural History Museum in the UK and Australian institutions have studied seabirds in Lord Howe Island, Australia. The study included the pale-footed shearwater, a bird that is considered the world's most affected by plastic pollution due to its frequent ingestion of plastic.
Xinhua News Agency (Photo courtesy of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization)
This photo provided by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation on October 7, 2020 shows trash floating at sea.
Researchers have found that pale-footed shearwaters become inflamed after ingesting plastic fragments. Over time, ongoing inflammation can cause scarring of tissues. The more plastic is ingested, the more scarring there will be inside the glandular stomach. Over time, the tubular gland inside the glands and stomachs fibrosis, and their function gradually declines, resulting in greater vulnerability to infection and parasite infestation, which in turn affects the ability of food to digest and absorb some vitamins, affecting the growth and even survival of light-footed shearwaters.
The British "Guardian" quoted researchers on the 3rd to report that this is the first time researchers have found plastic-induced fibrosis diseases in wild animals. They called this fibrotic disease plastic disease to make it clear that it was caused by plastic in the environment.
A worker cleans up trash off the coast of Jakarta, Indonesia, June 8, 2021. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Wei Li)
According to the British Museum of Natural History website, this plastic disease is particularly harmful to young birds because their stomach capacity is small, and in extreme cases, chicks will starve to death because their stomachs are filled with indigestible plastic. Previous studies have shown that as many as 90% of pale-footed shearwater juveniles have plastic fed by parent birds.
Alex Bond, head of the museum's bird department, said: "These birds look healthy on the outside, but they are not good on the inside. This study is the first to study stomach tissue in birds in this way, and the results show that ingesting plastic can cause serious damage to the digestive system in birds. ”
01
It is ruining the lives of seabirds
The BBC's documentary team once came to the Tasman Sea to track the pale-footed plover.
They usually leave their fledgling cubs in burrows and go out to sea in search of food. They are not picky eaters, and the small fish in the sea, shrimp, squid and so on, are all excellent delicious.
Adult pale-footed plovers often pick up the "food" floating in the sea, fly back to the burrow, and feed the cubs. However, from that moment on, the cubs unknowingly walked into the trap of starvation...
Because a large part of that food is -- plastic.
After the adult pale-footed plover left the cave, the crew immediately went to wash the cub's stomach with seawater.
However, the result silenced everyone!
This pale-footed plover, which was just 80 days old, spit out 91 pieces of plastic...
But in addition to this 80-day-old newborn, there are many more pale-footed plovers starving to death on the beach and in the ocean with plastic bellys...
They can't tell if it's food floating in the sea, or plastic, because they're not picky eaters!
Because those indigestible plastics cannot give the body any energy and replenishment, they cannot resist the strong winds on the sea, and may not be able to fly back after a certain foraging; They can't even swallow really fresh and delicious fish and shrimp because they are "too full" and then slowly starve to death.
In the past 50 years, the pale-footed plover population has decreased by 30%, and the biggest threat comes from plastic in the sea.
According to statistics, this seabird eats more plastic than any other marine animal. If converted according to body size, it is equivalent to a person eating about 10 kilograms of plastic.
Plastic is a ubiquitous thing in our daily lives, but it is a lethal weapon for some animals. For example, seabirds.
Plastic soaked in seawater emits a chemical called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), which can cause seabirds to mistakenly think that it is a safe delicacy and swallow it into their stomachs.
These substances can affect the movement of seabirds, block the digestive tract, and even suffocate. By 2050, an estimated 99.8% of seabirds will have plastic in their stomachs.
The seabirds' dilemma doesn't stop there. According to reliable statistics:
Silver gulls have declined by 30% in the last 40 years
Storm shearwaters in European waters have decreased by 40% in the last 30 years
Puffins will decline by 80% in the second half of the century
There are only 26 pairs of Kajima albatrosses left...
The total number of seabirds in the world is 1 billion fewer than in 1950, and by 2060, the value on the graph will be close to zero.
The increasingly severe situation of seabird survival is closely related to human activities and environmental pollution.
The most troubling finding is the link between rising plastic production and an increased proportion of seabirds eating plastic. Global plastic production is doubling every 11 years. So in the next 11 years, our plastic production will be equal to the total production since the invention of plastics. The same goes for the amount of plastic that seabirds eat.
The scientists combined map data showing the ranges of 186 species of seabirds with the global distribution of marine debris to build a model to predict which seabirds would eat the most plastic. The places where seabirds eat the most plastic are in southern Australia, South Africa and South America, where coastlines are concentrated in marine debris in the South Pacific, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Marine circulation and marginal areas where seabird distribution are most at risk.
Large birds eat more amounts of plastic, such as albatrosses. But that doesn't mean large birds eat a higher percentage of plastic. The white-bellied puffin, a small loon that lives near Alaska in the North Pacific, eats the highest percentage of plastic.
Albatrosses are more likely to eat plastic because they fish by dipping their mouths into the top of the sea, inadvertently swallowing plastic floating on the surface. Petrels and gulls live on offshore islands and hunt large areas of the sea, and they also contain large amounts of plastic in their stomachs. Albatrosses are more likely to eat plastic because they fish by dipping their mouths into the top of the sea, inadvertently swallowing plastic floating on the surface. Petrels and gulls live on offshore islands and hunt large areas of the sea, and they also contain large amounts of plastic in their stomachs.
The plastic found in seabirds includes synthetic fibers in bags, bottle caps, lining, and pieces the size of rice grains formed by the decomposition of sunlight and waves. The health effects of plastic on seabird populations have not yet been fully judged, but the observations collected are troubling enough. Plastic with sharp edges can perforate internal organs, which can kill seabirds. Some seabirds eat so much plastic that they have little space in their intestines to hold food, which can affect their weight and endanger their health. If there is more plastic in the intestines of seabirds, it will eventually have an impact. Trends suggest that seabirds are eating more and more plastic.
A new study found that seabird populations declined by 67 percent between 1950 and 2010. Basically, seabirds are heading for extinction. Maybe it won't happen tomorrow, but their number is falling sharply. Plastic is one of the threats they face.
Over the past 60 years, the global seabird population has fallen by more than two-thirds.
One-third of all seabird species are now threatened with extinction, and half of them are identified or thought to be declining.
Seabirds face a greater crisis than any other species of vertebrate.
In the face of an existential crisis, seabirds themselves have made their efforts. are increasing in the northeast of the Atlantic Ocean, cormorants are flooding into freshwater lakes and rivers...
They survived with their ability to adapt, and they stood firm to watch the gate of extinction.
02
Thickening "plastic soup"
There are at least 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans. It is estimated that 480~12.7 million tons of plastic waste enter the ocean every year, which is equivalent to 100~300 shopping bags filled with plastic per 1 meter of coastline in coastal areas.
The ocean is like a huge soup pot, and humans are constantly adding plastic "seasonings" to it, and more specific and huge numbers are constantly being thrown.
Plastic bags caught up in the ocean are often mistaken by turtles for their favorite jellyfish and squid. Almost half of marine mammal species, including seals, whales and porpoises, die of suffocation and starvation after ingesting plastic bags.
In addition to plastic bags, there are other garbage that can also have a fatal effect on marine life, ropes that will trap the beaks and necks of curious pecking animals, and when their bodies grow up, the ropes will tighten and eventually hang them; Fishing lines wrap around the bodies of aquatic animals, causing them to struggle, breathe, eat, and ski; Discarded nets will continue to be "ghost fished", sweeping away fish, seals, turtles and whales indiscriminately.
Long-lived species such as dolphins, seals and whales are good indicators of the health of marine ecosystems, but as apex predators, they are vulnerable to the accumulation of pollutants such as toxins or plastics.
In 2018, a dead whale washed ashore in eastern Indonesia had about 5.9 kilograms of plastic waste in its stomach, including 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, two flip-flops, a nylon bag and more than 1,000 pieces of plastic of various types. Cetaceans are a family of aquatic mammals that include whales and dolphins that do not drink from the ocean, but from the food they eat. Due to the ingested plastic, the whale was no longer able to ingest large amounts of food, so it died of "dehydration and starvation"; On the other hand, the endocrine disruptors released by plastics are likely to cause their sterility. One report mentioned that a killer whale accumulated 957 mg/kg of PCBs in adipose tissue, which is 100 times the toxicity threshold. Although of childbearing age, this killer whale is unable to give birth. Model projections suggest that because marine mammals are particularly vulnerable to PCBs, where fat-soluble EDCs accumulate in their tissues, and that high-fat milk and longer lactation periods mean mothers pass on more toxins to their offspring, the global killer whale population could be halved within a century.
When discarded fishing equipment such as overalls, gloves, damaged lobster pots and nets are dragged along the seabed, corals are destroyed and many species that inhabit corals are affected.
Scientists studied 159 coral reefs in Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and other regions, screening 125,000 corals for tissue damage and lesions, and came to surprising results: when corals come into contact with plastic, their risk increases from 4% to 89%, which means that corals are 20 times more likely to be affected by disease during contact with plastic. The researchers estimate that the destructive coral "white syndrome" in the world's seas may have some link to this.
90% of marine litter found on the world's coastlines is linked to single-use plastics: bottles, straws, food packaging and plain packaging. Plastics are not biodegradable and at most break down into smaller pieces. Microplastic particles are found in filter feeders such as barnacles, sea earthworms and amphipods, which in turn are eaten by large sea creatures, including fish, and eventually served on human tables and into our own stomachs.
If you like to drink bottled water, you should eat 86,000 more plastic pellets per year than those who only use thermos cups, which equates to about 236 pellets per day.
Research by the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology shows that 80% of the anchovies found in Tokyo Bay contain microplastics in the digestive system, ranging in size from 0.1 to 1 millimeter and numbering about 150.
As a result, it is estimated that people who love shellfish are not immune, with 11,000 pieces of microplastics ingested each year.
Plastic particles found in the blood cells of mussels
03
What can we do?
I remember watching a documentary about a 70-year-old Fujian man who has lived on an island by the sea all his life.
Live by the sea and survive by the sea.
After decades of ups and downs at sea, he raised children and supported his small family.
When he is old, he will no longer go to sea for physical reasons.
No longer fishing in the sea, he began to row a boat to the surface every day to pick up floating garbage, and even put on a wetsuit to go down to the appropriate depth to pick up deep-sea garbage.
Pick up some every day and go back the next day as usual.
Seeing this, I can't help but have a question in my heart:
In his later years, he no longer lived on the sea, did he pick it up for himself?
Maybe not, he is picking up for generations to come, and he is giving back the kindness of the ocean to him in his busy life.
Only when human beings are always grateful, always think about future generations, protect the environment and protect the earth, this is truly sustainable development.
On average, 3,400 plastic bottles enter the ocean every second.
In the few minutes you read, thousands of plastic trash like this have joined the ranks of killing marine life and poisoning humans.
Are we going to "protect the oceans and protect the earth"?
No.
The ocean, the earth, have experienced a harsher environment than today:
Volcanic eruptions, crustal movements, solar flares, magnetic storms, magnetic pole swaps, meteorite bombings, cosmic rays, ice ages...
Can plastic bottles and convenience bags alone destroy the planet and destroy the oceans?
Of course not.
In April 2017, scientists found microplastics in soil, earthworms, hen droppings and stomachs, confirming for the first time that microplastics had entered the terrestrial food chain.
These microplastics are passed through the food chain to humans, where they can cause health problems of varying severity, including cancer, when absorbed by the body.
The earth will repair itself, and the oceans will clean itself.
Only human beings themselves will be destroyed by human actions.
Stop saying "save the ocean", we are just saving ourselves.
Accidentally left a plastic bottle on the side of the road, a plastic bag brought back from the supermarket... They may all quietly dive into the sea to prevent marine plastic pollution, starting from the small things around "me".
Can you do it?
(1) Protect the beach environment and take garbage with you when you leave the beach.
(2) Use reusable products and recycle, and use less single-use plastic products, such as straws, plastic cups, plastic water bottles and plastic bags; Avoid buying over-packaged items, especially disposables.
(3) Separate garbage and waste in daily life, collect and dispose of them separately.
(4) Promote the recycling of useful domestic waste, improve resource utilization, and reduce the amount of garbage disposal.
The blue planet we live on has been overburdened, I hope that those beautiful and precious marine creatures will not disappear because of us, and protecting the marine environment on which we live has become a responsibility that we cannot ignore, let us work together to ensure the peace, safety and abundance of the ocean, and always maintain the health of this blue home of mankind.
Source: Ecological China Network comprehensive collation, graphic invasion and deletion.