Plastic ingestion by Procellariiformes in Southern Brazil

Abstract

The Procellariiformes are the birds most affected by plastic pollution. Plastic fragments and pellets were the most frequent items found in the digestive tract of eight species of Procellariiformes incidentally caught by longline fisheries as well as beached birds in Southern Brazil. Plastic objects were found in 62% of the petrels and 12% of the albatrosses. The Great shearwater, Manx shearwater, Cory’s shearwater and Antarctic fulmar were found to have greater quantities and frequencies of occurrence of plastic. There was no significant difference in the number of plastics between the birds from longline fisheries and beached birds. No correlation was found between the number of prey and number of plastics in the digestive tract of the birds analyzed, but this does not discard the hypothesis that, in some cases, the presence of plastic in the digestive tract has a negative effect on the feeding efficiency of these birds.