Seabirds eat plastic smelling like food

This January 2020 video from the USA is called #BringBirdsBack – Use Less Plastic.

Another video used to say about itself:

When birds eats plastic!! (Shocking video)

19 February 2013

Midway Island is an uninhabited island about 2000 km from any other coast line. It lies roughly equidistant between North America and Asia, and almost halfway around the world from England.

If you think that throwing away that plastic bottle or piece of rubbish, can’t possibly be doing any harm, then watch this clip and think again.

From Science News:

Ocean plastic emits chemical that tricks seabirds into eating trash

by Laurel Hamers

2:00pm, November 9, 2016

Plastic smells like supper for some seabirds. When the ubiquitous material ends up in the ocean, it gives off a chemical that albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters often use to locate food, researchers report online November 9 in Science Advances. That might lead the birds to ingest harmful junk instead of a real meal.

Researchers let small beads of three common plastics linger off the coast of California. After a couple of weeks, the once-clean plastic accumulated grit, grime and bacteria that gave off an odiferous gas called dimethyl sulfide. Phytoplankton gives off the same gas, and certain seabirds use its odor as a cue that dinner is nearby. Birds that rely more heavily on dimethyl sulfide as a beacon for a nearby meal are more likely to ingest plastic than birds that don’t, the team found. And other plankton-feeding marine animals could also be fooled.

We’re proud to present ‘The ‘Seabird’ Bulletin’ – a special summer edition of our regular news brief, ‘The Bird Bulletin’. Throughout June, we chronicled the high seas adventures of our Marine Conservation Officer, Marguerite Tarzia aboard the RSS Discovery on its ‘Journey to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’ – read the highlights from Marguerite and her fellow crewmates here!