Auklet (Charadriiformes: Alcidae, Aethia spp.) chick meals from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, have a very low incidence of plastic marine debris

The ingestion of plastic marine debris is a chronic problem for some of the world’s seabird species, contributing to reduced chick survival, population declines, and deposition of contaminants via absorption in birds’ gastrointestinal tract. We analysed the frequency of ingested plastic in chick mea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine pollution bulletin 2010-08, Vol.60 (8), p.1346-1349
Main Authors: Bond, Alexander L., Jones, Ian L., Williams, Jeffrey C., Byrd, G. Vernon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Aethia
Aethia cristatella
Alaska
Alcidae
Aleutian Islands
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Applied ecology
Auklet
Aves
Biological and medical sciences
Charadriiformes
Charadriiformes - metabolism
Chicks
Debris
Deposition
Diet - statistics & numerical data
Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution
Effects of pollution and side effects of pesticides on vertebrates
Environmental Exposure - analysis
Environmental Monitoring
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gastrointestinal Tract - metabolism
Ingestion
Islands
Marine
Marine debris
Meals
North Pacific Ocean
Plastic
Plastics - metabolism
Psittacula
Survival
Water Pollutants, Chemical - metabolism
Water Pollution, Chemical - statistics & numerical data
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Summary:The ingestion of plastic marine debris is a chronic problem for some of the world’s seabird species, contributing to reduced chick survival, population declines, and deposition of contaminants via absorption in birds’ gastrointestinal tract. We analysed the frequency of ingested plastic in chick meals delivered by adults in four species of auklet – Crested (Aethia cristatella), Least (A. pusilla), Parakeet (A. psittacula), and Whiskered (A. pygmaea) – from three breeding colonies in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA over a 14-year period from 1993 to 2006. Among 2541 chick meals, we found plastic in only one – from a Whiskered Auklet on Buldir Island in 1993. While adult Parakeet Auklets have a high frequency of plastic ingestion (over 90%), no chick meals contained plastic. Unlike other seabirds, the planktivorous auklets do not appear to offload plastic to their chicks, and we conclude that auklet chicks are probably at a low risk of contamination from plastic debris.
ISSN:0025-326X
1879-3363
DOI:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.05.001