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For hundreds of years seabirds have dominated the ocean environment, soaring over pristine waters in search of productive upwelling areas where fish congregate.  However, over the last few decades, these same foraging "hot spots" have contained not only fish, but also pieces of floating plastic.  One such area, referred to as the North Pacific Gyre or the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch", now boasts up to 40 times more plastic than plankton.  Whereas this region has garnered much needed attention from the public, what isn't advertised so much is that four other gyres exist in each of the major oceanic basins, plagued with the more than 3.2 million new pieces of plastic estimated to enter the world's oceans every day.  Brought to breeding colonies in the stomachs of adult seabirds, the plastic is evidence of a growing problem recently recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as an "emerging toxic, global issue".

In Australia, the frequency of plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed Shearwaters Puffinus carneipes (a potential candidate species for listing within ACAP) on Lord Howe Island has increased by 17% in only five years, with one chick containing more than 275 pieces of plastic.  This plastic load accounted for 15% of the birds' body mass, equivalent to the average human having 8 kg of plastic inside their body.  Mortality is thought to be high, and for those chicks that do survive, things don't get any easier.  Once ingested, heavy metals and other toxins on the surface of plastic items leach into the bird's blood stream.  On Lord Howe Island, Flesh-footed Shearwaters have been found to contain levels of mercury more than 100 times those known to be toxic to birds (click here).

More than 275 pieces of plastic removed from the stomach of a Flesh-footed Shearwater chick on Lord Howe Island
Photograph by Ian Hutton.

The Lord Howe Island population has decreased by more than 65% since the late 1970s.  Recent surveys of New Zealand and South and Western Australia, some as yet unpublished, highlight an even bigger problem, with an estimated reduction in the global population of up to 85%.

The Flesh-footed Shearwater is listed as a marine migratory species in terms of Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act of 1999 (click here).  Globally it is categorized as of Least Concern.  However, based on findings reported here it seems the species now warrants consideration of receiving a threatened status.

Click here  for an earlier ACAP news item on the Flesh-footed Shearwater.

Selected References:

Baker, G.B. & Wise, B.S. 2005. The impact of pelagic longline fishing on the Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes in eastern Australia. Biological Conservation 126: 306-316.

Baker, B., Hedley, G. & Cunningham, R. 2010.  Data collection of demographic, distributional, and trophic information on the Flesh-footed Shearwater to allow estimation of effects of fishing on population viability: 2009- 10 Field Season.  Report prepared for the Ministry of Fisheries PRO2006-01 I.  Kettering: Latitude 42 Environmental Consultants.

Bond, A.L. & Lavers, J.L. 2011.  Trace element concentrations in feathers of Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) from across their breeding range.  Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 61: 318-326.

Cooper, J. 2010.  A brief review of the conservation status of shearwaters Calonectris and Puffinus.  ACAP AC5 Inf 15.

Cooper, J. & Baker, G.B. 2008. Identifying candidate species for inclusion within the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels. Marine Ornithology 36: 1-8.

Garnett, S., Szabo, J. & Dutson, G. 2012.  The Action Plan for Australian Birds 2010.  Collingwood: CSIRO Publishing.  456 pp.

Hutton, I., Carlile, N. & Priddel, D. 2008.  Plastic ingestion by Flesh-footed (Puffinus carneipes) and Wedge-tailed (Puffinus pacificus) shearwaters.  Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania 142: 67-72.

Priddel, D., Carlile, N., Fullagar, P., Hutton, I. O'Neill, L. 2006.  Decline in the distribution and abundance of flesh-footed shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) on Lord Howe Island, Australia.  Biological Conservation 128: 412-424.

Reid, T.A. 2010.  Modelling the Foraging Ecology of the Flesh-footed Shearwater Puffinus carneipes in Relation to Fisheries and Oceanography.  PhD, University of Tasmania, Hobart.  158 pp.

Jennifer Lavers, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania and John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, 12 February 2012