Rapid Fire
Impact of Marine Pollution on Seabirds
- 10 May 2025
- 2 min read
A research highlights that plastic ingestion by seabirds not only causes physical harm but also disrupts their hormonal systems, posing long-term biological risks.
- Seabirds like albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters (members of the order Procellariiformes) ingest highest rates of plastic ingestion due to their foraging behavior and unique digestive systems.
- Ingested plastic can cause physical harm (e.g., obstruction, perforation, malnutrition) and release toxic chemicals that affect hormones.
- Marine Plastic Pollution: Plastic pollution accounts for 80% of marine waste, with 8–10 million metric tons entering oceans annually. By 2050, plastic could outweigh all fish.
- Currently, 50–75 trillion plastic pieces pollute our oceans, forming vast garbage patches or breaking into microplastic particles.
- Marine pollution harms biodiversity, reduces oxygen levels in ocean waters, disrupts deep-sea ecosystems, contaminates the marine food chain, and negatively impacts human health, and coastal livelihoods.
- Combating Marine Plastic Pollution: The Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML), established in 2012, is a multi-stakeholder platform to combat plastic pollution globally.
- The UNEP Source-to-Sea Pollution Unit serves as its secretariat, supporting knowledge-sharing and joint action.
- The 1972 London Convention and 1978 Protocol to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) aim to prevent marine pollution from waste dumping and ship discharges.
| Read more: Plastic Marine Pollution |
