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Importation of plastic fragments into a seabird colony: accident or design, threat or benign?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2021

JANSKE VAN DE CROMMENACKER ,
JOANNA H. SOARES ,
CHRISTINE S. LAROSE  and
CHRIS J. FEARE Open the ORCID record for CHRIS J. FEARE [Opens in a new window]
JANSKE VAN DE CROMMENACKER
Affiliation:
Denis Island/Green Islands Foundation, Vines Building, Belair Road, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles
JOANNA H. SOARES
Affiliation:
Bird Island, P.O. Box 1419, Victoria, Mahé, Seychelles.
CHRISTINE S. LAROSE
Affiliation:
Pointe au Sel, Au Cap, Mahé, Seychelles.
CHRIS J. FEARE*
Affiliation:
WildWings Bird Management, 2 North View Cottages, Grayswood Common, HaslemereGU27 2DN, UK.
*
*Author for correspondence; email: [email protected]
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Summary

Plastic pollution affects marine ecosystems worldwide and poses risks for seabirds. Most recorded impacts on organisms are negative but, in some cases, the constructive use of plastic fragments or objects by birds has also been recorded. Small blue and green plastic fragments are found scattered among nests in a large (c.500,000 pairs) Sooty Tern Onychoprion fuscatus nesting colony on Bird Island, Seychelles. We investigated whether the fragments were being imported by the birds, and if so whether import was accidental or intentional. We found that Sooty Terns were the only seabird species to have plastic fragments in their nesting area and import of fragments varied seasonally and spatially. Throughout the colony, plastic fragments were imported during egg-laying, incubation, and chick-rearing, but import declined as chicks began to fledge. A part of the colony where all eggs were harvested for human consumption received more fragments than among undisturbed nests. We failed to find evidence of ingestion and excretion of fragments and suggest other avenues for investigation.

Keywords

Sooty TernOnychoprion fuscatusBird Island Seychellesplastic fragments
Type
Short Communication
Information
Bird Conservation International , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2022 , pp. 641 - 654
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of BirdLife International

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