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Life starts with plastic: High occurrence of plastic pieces in fledglings of northern fulmars
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Researchers found that 100% of northern fulmar fledglings examined from Svalbard in the Eurasian Arctic had ingested plastic, averaging 46 particles per bird. The most common plastics were white polyethylene fragments, with microplastics slightly outnumbering larger mesoplastics. The study suggests that fulmar fledglings may serve as effective indicators for monitoring plastic pollution trends over time.
Plastic pollution threatens many organisms around the world. In particular, the northern fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis, is known to ingest high quantities of plastics. Since data are sparse in the Eurasian Arctic, we investigated plastic burdens in the stomachs of fulmar fledglings from Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. Fifteen birds were collected and only particles larger than 1 mm were extracted, characterised and analysed with Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy. All birds ingested plastic. In total, 683 plastic particles were found, with an average of 46 ± 40 SD items per bird. The most common shape, colour and polymer were hard fragment, white, and polyethylene, respectively. Microplastics (< 5 mm) were slightly more represented than mesoplastics (> 5 mm). This study confirms high numbers of ingested plastics in fulmar fledglings from Svalbard and suggests that fulmar fledglings may be suitable for temporal monitoring of plastic pollution, avoiding potential biases caused by age composition or breeding state.
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