Bellies full of plastic

Glimmering like a shoal of sardines whirling close to water’s surface, plastic waste is often mistaken for food by marine birds. However, the reason for a severe increase of plastic consumption by tube-nosed seabirds does not only stem from the iridescent appearance of plastic waste but also from misidentifying the smell, as scientists of the University of California have found out only recently. According to the University’s study, plastic waste that remains on the ocean’s surface for a couple of weeks becomes covered in algae. Due to the algae, DMS is produced. DMS stands for dimethyl sulphide and contributes to the distinct “smell of the sea”. This particular smell is also produced when phytoplankton is consumed by zooplankton, such as some species of copepods, cladocerans etc. These micro-crustaceans are the seabirds’ favourite food hence DMS has the same effect as a bait on a fish hook has on cod or herring. Albatrosses, diving petrels, storm petrels, and petrels and shearwaters are lured into believing that the DMS is related to a high density of zooplankton and feed the “food”. As a consequence, the birds’ stomachs fill up with plastic instead of crustaceans, resulting in finding carcasses on beaches whose insides bear more resemblance to a waste disposal facility than an actual organ. For most people, who are fond of nature, this issue is a bête noire but only few have courageously accepted the challenge to solve it. One of them is 22-year-old Boyan Slat from the Netherlands who created a floating barrier, called “Boomy McBoomface”. This barrier reaches one and a half metres above and below the waterline and is intended to clean up the Pacific Ocean. Slat claims that, due to the natural movement of the waves, plastic waste floats towards the highest point of the V-shape, which is aimed to be a 100 km long in total. The collected waste is then to be removed and recycled on shore. The floating barrier is a prototype by Slat’s organization “The Ocean Cleanup” and currently tested in the North Sea. Among other benefits, reducing the plastic waste in the ocean would contribute to reducing the number of birds dying from plastic consumption.