Marine birds and plastic debris in Canada: a national synthesis and a way forward

Abstract

Marine plastic ingestion by seabirds was first documented in the 1960s, but over 50 years later our understanding about the prevalence, intensity, and subsequent effect of plastic pollution in the oceans is still developing. In Canada, systematic assessments using recognized standard protocols began only in the mid-2000s. With marine plastic pollution identified by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) as one of the most critical challenges for the environment, a greater understanding of how plastics affect marine birds in Canada, along with a national strategy, is timely and necessary. To better understand which and how many marine birds are affected by marine debris, we reviewed reports of plastic ingestion and nest incorporation in Canada. Of the 91 marine bird species found in Canadian waters, detailed plastic ingestion data from multiple years and locations are available for only six species. Another 33 species have incidental reports, and we lack any data on dozens more. Future efforts should focus on characterizing the risk of plastic ingestion among understudied species and on continued monitoring of species that are known indicators of plastic pollution internationally and found in multiple regions of Canada to facilitate comparisons at the national and international levels.Key words: plastic, seabirds, marine birds, Canada, debris.Résumé : Déjà dans les années 1960, sont parus des documents faisant état de l'ingestion de plastique par les oiseaux marins, mais 50 ans plus tard notre compréhension sur la prévalence, l'intensité et les effets subséquents de la pollution par le plastique dans les océans est toujours en développement. Au Canada, des évaluations systématiques basées sur des protocoles standard reconnus ont débuté seulement au milieu des années 2000. La pollution marine par le plastique ayant été reconnue par le Programme des Nations Unies pour l'environnement (PNUE) comme un des défis les plus critiques pour l'environnement, il est nécessaire d'avoir une meilleure compréhension de la façon avec laquelle les plastiques affectent les oiseaux marins au Canada; le temps est venu de développer une stratégie nationale qui s'impose. Afin de mieux comprendre quels sont les espèces et les nombres d'oiseaux de mer affectés par les débris marins, les auteurs ont revu les rapports sur l'ingestion de plastique et son incorporation dans les nids au Canada. Sur les 91 espèces d'oiseaux marins répertoriés dans les eaux canadiennes, on ne retrouve des données détaillées provenant de nombreuses années et locations que pour six espèces. On retrouve des rapports occasionnels pour 33 espèces et il n'existe aucune donnée pour d'autres douzaines d'espèces. Les futurs efforts de suivi devraient se concentrer sur la caractérisation du risque de l'ingestion de plastique chez les espèces sous étudiées et sur le suivi continu des espèces réputées indicatrices de la pollution partout au monde, présentes dans plusieurs régions du Canada, afin de faciliter les comparaisons aux échelles nationale et int...

Microplastic abundance and distribution in the open water and sediment of the Ottawa River, Canada, and its tributaries

“…Although the impact of microplastics on freshwater ecosystems is poorly understood (Wagner et al 2014;Anderson et al 2016), it is clear that some freshwater organisms are consuming this plastic pollution (Holland et al 2016), and given what has been observed in marine environments (Provencher et al 2015;Lönnstedt and Eklöv 2016) it is plausible that they are having some detrimental impacts on freshwater organisms. Few toxicological studies have investigated the impact of microplastics on freshwater organisms and this remains a major knowledge gap in our assessment of water quality for the protection of aquatic life (Anderson et al 2016).…”

“…This breakdown, but lack of biological degradation, results in a buildup of small plastic fragments, which has been most extensively studied in marine environments (Cole et al 2011). These small plastic particles can have negative impacts on aquatic ecosystems including concentrating other contaminants in the system (Gregory 1996;Rios et al 2007) and being ingested by animals, including apex predators, reducing their fitness and increasing mortality (Provencher et al 2015;Sigler 2014;Lönnstedt and Eklöv 2016;Holland et al 2016).…”

Nests of the brown booby ( Sula leucogaster ) as a potential indicator of tropical ocean pollution by marine debris

“…Nest surveys provide relatively easy, non-invasive, and rapid approach to quantify marine debris (Montevecchi, 1991;Provencher et al, 2015). However, some seabird species show some level of selectivity for type and color of debris, indicating that it might not be a good indicator for monitoring the abundance of these materials in the sea (Bond et al, 2012;Verlis et al, 2014;Lavers and Bond, 2016).…”

How Arctic Marine Birds Help Researchers Study a Changing North

“…Although the study of micro-contaminants such as mercury is the main focus of my PhD research, another emerging issue is macro-contaminants (especially plastic) that are affecting the global oceans (UNEP, 2014), including northern waters (Provencher et al, [2015]). Marine birds sampled as part of my PhD research for contaminant and parasite analyses have also contributed to studies examining plastic pollutants ingested by birds .…”

“…Since there are no sources of industrial plastics in the Canadian Arctic, this finding demonstrates that plastic pollution travels to the North passively on ocean currents (Mallory et al, 2006b). With no national strategy for assessing ingested plastics in marine birds, such opportunistic collections in partnership with local communities is currently the only widespread effort to assess how plastic pollution is occurring in marine wildlife in Arctic Canada (Provencher et al, [2015]). …”