Graceful northern fulmars breed in Alaska, look like gulls, and are cousins of the albatross. But in one way, they resemble canaries in a coal mine.
According to The Globe and Mail of Toronto, researchers at the University of British Columbia have found surprising levels of plastic in the stomachs of fulmars.
Necropsies of 67 of beached seabirds collected between October 2009 and April 2010 from the coasts of B.C., Washington and Oregon indicated nearly 93 per cent of them had plastic in their stomach, she said. The average amount found was 0.38 grams, which equates to about a tenth of a pound in a human stomach.
One bird recovered had 454 pieces of plastic in its gut, said researcher Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the study's lead author and graduate of the university's zoology department.
Ingesting plastic can cause gastrointestinal blockage, lacerations and reduced feeding. Some 260 marine species, including turtles, fish and seabirds are known to become entangled in plastic or eat it.
Avery-Gomm said plastic pollution should be monitored annually and that people should be educated about the harm caused by plastics thrown out.
"Anything that gets into a river, anything that gets into the sewage system, anything that ends up on a beach is probably headed straight for the ocean," Avery-Gomm told the Globe and Mail.