Nov. 3, 2009 -- Laysan albatross chicks living on one of the world's most remote islands, Kure Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, ingest 10 times more plastic than chicks living on Oahu, according to a new study published in the journal PLoS One.
The study illustrates how human activity can impact even the most isolated animal species.
Adult Kure birds spend time foraging over the "Western Garbage Patch," an enormous zone of floating plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean. The albatrosses eat a lot of flying fish eggs, which are often attached to scraps of wood, plastic or other materials.
This foraging pattern appears to account for the difference in plastic consumption by chicks, suggests bird tracking data collected by the research team.
It is difficult to prove if and how plastic is killing albatrosses, but researchers speculate that birds may die from plastic puncturing the intestinal tract, from blockages, or from toxins in the plastic or other pollutants.
Lindsay Young of the University of Hawaii and colleagues attached location trackers to adult Laysan albatrosses on Oahu and on Kure Atoll, located 1,300 miles northwest of Oahu.
The researchers were curious to see how the foraging patterns differed at the two locations during the egg incubating and early chick-rearing season -- when the birds have to return regularly to the nest -- and afterward.
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