Virtual Posters

Plastic debris has become ubiquitous in the marine environment and seabirds may ingest debris which can have deleterious effects on their health. More than 200 seabird species have been reported to ingest plastics worldwide, with isolated and remote areas not immune to this global problem, including the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We examined the stomach contents of two seabird species breeding in the eastern Canadian Arctic for ingested plastic, an alcid, the thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) and a procellariiforme, the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). 84% of the fulmars collected at mid and high Arctic colonies contained plastic debris in their gastrointestinal tract and 11% of the murres collected at low, mid and high Arctic sites contained plastic debris, a species with no previous reports of ingested plastics in the north Atlantic. Although both species showed higher occurrence of plastic debris than previously reported few murres contained more than 1 piece of plastic, while 28% of the fulmars collected had plastic loads greater than 0.1 grams, the Ecological Quality Objective goal set for fulmars in the North Sea. This study sets a baseline for ingested plastics by seabirds in the Canadian Arctic but more work is needed to understand plastic ingestion patterns in these two species as a decrease in summer sea ice may affect the availability of plastics in northern waters. Marine plastic debris is becoming a problem in distant and remote locations away from industrialized areas, and we can use seabirds as indicators of plastic debris worldwide where little other plastic debris assessment work is being done.