Mar 11 - Study finds plastic in 95% of dead birds
A recent study by the Save the North Sea Project has found that thousands of sea birds are being killed each years as a result of growing plastics pollution in the North Sea.
Studies on the bodies of 600 fulmars washed up on beaches revealed that 95 per cent had plastic litter in their stomachs - with an average of 40 pieces of plastic per bird.
One fulmar had 1,600 pieces of plastic in its guts, says the Save the North Sea project, which was set up by volunteers and professional organisations in all countries with North Sea coastlines.
Fulmars - gull-like, tube-nosed birds with a massive colony on St Kilda - are affected because they mistake discarded plastic for jellyfish floating on the sea's surface.
The south-east area of the North Sea - around the Channel exit to German Bight - is the worst-affected and plastics pollution is not only killing birds but also putting off bathers, contributing to beach clean-up costs and causing fouled propellers and blocked water intakes.
Mark Grantham, of the British Trust for Ornithology, said: "Plastics pollution is a chronic problem in the North Sea. Heaven knows where some of this plastic comes from. They've found everything from balloons to shotgun cartridges in the birds' stomachs. But the commonest is beads of raw plastic before it is formed."
Plastics in the marine environment off California's coast has also reached the critical stage. Local governments whose storm water drains into impared watersheds are under a mandate from the US EPA to reduce trash in the storm drain system to zero. Californians Against Waste is working with state and local policy makers on a range of policies and programs to reduce and recycle plastic pollution and waste.