Marine mammals and debris in coastal waters of British Columbia, Canada

Williams, Rob; Ashe, Erin; O’Hara, Patrick D.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2011.02.029

Cited by 98 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Regional studies have shown that both macro-and microplastics are common in regions of seabird habitat (Williams et al 2011;Desforges et al 2014). Matching seabird studies with such environmental studies will increase our knowledge of the patchiness of plastic pollution, and how this may affect seabird ingestion and nest incorporation.…”

Section: Future Areas Of Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

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

2015

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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...

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Section: Future Areas Of Studymentioning

confidence: 98%

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

2015

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“…Rigorous distance sampling protocols exist for at-sea visual surveys, but it may be difficult to satisfy methodological assumptions such as 100% detection rate of objects on a transect line and accurate measurement of the distance to sighted objects (Williams et al 2011), especially in variable environmental conditions and for objects with variable sizes, colors, and buoyancies (Ryan et al 2009). In practice, a wide variety of survey protocols are reported in varying levels of detail, often omitting even minimum detection size; thus, it is extremely challenging to compare data sets reporting abundance quantities for visible (macroplastic) floating debris.…”

Section: Wwwannualreviewsorg • Plastics In the Marine Environment 211mentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastics in the Marine Environment

Law

2017

Annu. Rev. Mar. Sci.

800

345

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Plastics contamination in the marine environment was first reported nearly 50 years ago, less than two decades after the rise of commercial plastics production, when less than 50 million metric tons were produced per year. In 2014, global plastics production surpassed 300 million metric tons per year. Plastic debris has been detected worldwide in all major marine habitats, in sizes from microns to meters. In response, concerns about risks to marine wildlife upon exposure to the varied forms of plastic debris have increased, stimulating new research into the extent and consequences of plastics contamination in the marine environment. Here, I present a framework to evaluate the current understanding of the sources, distribution, fate, and impacts of marine plastics. Despite remaining knowledge gaps in mass budgeting and challenges in investigating ecological impacts, the increasing evidence of the ubiquity of plastics contamination in the marine environment, the continued rapid growth in plastics production, and the evidence-albeit limited-of demonstrated impacts to marine wildlife support immediate implementation of source-reducing measures to decrease the potential risks of plastics in the marine ecosystem.

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“…This a cryptic problem caused by the low probability of finding intact manatee carcasses with evidence of debris ingestion (Williams et al, 2011). However, a study of the Florida manatee (T. m. latirostris) performed in Florida showed that 14.4% of the necropsied animals ingested one or more debris types (Beck and Barros, 1991).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%