Not On The Menu For Seabirds

If Labor Day weekend calls you to the beach one last time, please do all you can to not add to a big problem that’s getting bigger. Here’s some perspective: The Christian Science Monitor says in 1960, less than 5 percent of seabirds had plastic in their stomachs.

That has changed dramatically and today scientists say nearly 90 percent of all the world’s seabirds have plastic in their stomachs.

International researchers say the birds often confuse plastic floating on water surfaces with food and as a result, bits of plastics from discarded bags, bottle caps and plastic fibers from synthetic clothes, along with other plastic pollution and debris have found their way into the digestive systems of seabirds like albatrosses, shearwaters and penguins.

Last December, separate research found that more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing nearly 269,000 tons, are littering the world's oceans. So when you leave the beach for the last time this summer, take your plastic with you because garbage isn’t for the birds.