Short-tailed Shearwaters confuse plastic particles with their prey. They mainly peck nutrition from the water surface. For this reason, Rei Yamashita and Hideshige Takada, scientists from the university in Tokyo, have often found polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (pp), which have a lower density than water, in the stomachs of the birds.
Photo: Hideshige Takada, Location: Bering Sea (North Pacific)
On average 15 plastic particles were found in the birds’stomachs. The number of plastic particles was higher than the amount which was found in the same regions in the 1970s and 1990s.
Photo: Rei Yamashita, Ort: Location: Bering Sea (North Pacific)
Pollutants which do not exist in natural prey were identified in the fat tissue of the birds. The same pollutants were identified in the plastic particles in the birds’ stomachs.
Photo: Hideshige Takada, Location: Bering Sea (North Pacific)