Wild Seabirds and Plastic Ingestion

Marine plastic pollution is causing significant individual suffering and population-level harm in seabirds globally, with albatrosses, petrels, and shearwaters among the most severely affected species.

Key Facts

Over 90% of seabirds have ingested plastic in studies across multiple ocean basins
Plastic ingestion causes physical obstruction, false satiety, and chemical toxin exposure
Parent birds feed plastic fragments to chicks, causing mortality in nesting colonies
Albatross chicks at Midway Atoll die from plastic-filled stomachs fed by parents unable to distinguish plastic from prey
Microplastic ingestion causes inflammation and can transfer persistent organic pollutants to body tissue
Plastic pollution has increased 100-fold in ocean surface waters since the 1970s

Welfare Considerations

Plastic ingestion causes individual seabird suffering through multiple mechanisms. Physical obstruction reduces stomach capacity, causing false satiety in parents who feed chicks inadequate nutrition. Perforation risk and toxin leaching from plastics cause additional physiological harm. The scale — affecting the majority of individuals in many seabird populations — makes plastic ingestion one of the largest ongoing sources of marine wildlife welfare harm. Individual welfare improvement requires systemic plastic reduction: less plastic entering ocean systems through production reduction, improved waste management, and policy restrictions on single-use plastic that enters marine environments.

What You Can Do

Reduce single-use plastic consumption, particularly items that commonly enter ocean environments
Participate in beach and river clean-up events that remove plastic before it reaches the ocean
Support legislation restricting single-use plastics with high marine pollution potential
Donate to seabird monitoring programs that track plastic ingestion impacts
Advocate for extended producer responsibility policies that make plastic producers fund pollution cleanup