Canadian Seabirds Help Fight Microplastic Pollution
Environment and Climate Change Canada use indicator species like the northern fulmar to monitor microplastic pollution
Back in 2007, Dr. Jennifer Provencher was studying changes in the diet of arctic seabirds in response to climate change, when she found something precarious. The team began to find plastic pieces inside of seabirds’ stomachs.
“That was a real ah-ha moment where I started thinking about plastics,” Dr. Provencher recalls.
This discovery led her to the Netherlands where fulmars were already being monitored for plastic ingestion.
“The only place where we have legislated plastic pollution monitoring and tracking is in the North Sea and it uses fulmars,” she explains.
“The only place where we have legislated plastic pollution monitoring and tracking is in the North Sea and it uses fulmars,” she explains.
Now, Dr. Provencher, and her team in the Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division of Environmental and Climate Change Canada, examine northern fulmar stomachs in Canada to monitor plastic pollution levels in response to policy changes.
What is the Northern Fulmar?
Northern fulmars are seabirds found in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. While they may resemble gulls, they are actually related to albatross and petrels. They play a key role in monitoring microplastics in the North.
Microplastics are plastic particles 5 mm or less in size. They can be ingested by wildlife and may leach chemicals associated or attached to the plastic. They also offer little to no nutritional value when ingested but may make the animal feel artificially full.
The northern fulmar is an indicator species, meaning they can indicate the level of microplastic pollution in areas they feed in
Northern fulmars are known to ingest and accumulate plastic in their stomachs. In fact, they are known to ingest more plastic than other seabirds, mammals and fish. They feed largely at the water surface, where plastic tends to float, and they feed in ocean gyres where the currents collect and capture floating plastic to form patches like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Fulmars are great indicator species to monitor plastic pollution.
They are limited to eat at the surface, where plastic floats.
Covering about 10,000 km, they sample huge areas just through their regular feeding habits.
Since northern fulmars reside in the Arctic, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, scientists can compare microplastic pollution across various northern regions. This comparison is important to weigh the effectiveness of plastic policies in different places.
“When collecting water samples, you get a measurement very specific to that place and time, which is good for certain questions,” Dr. Provencher notes. When considering the bigger plastic pollution picture however, “the birds essentially go in and do a bunch of surface water samples themselves.” That is what makes a great indicator species!
“Fulmars are one tool in the monitoring toolbox,” explains Dr. Provencher
It is very challenging to pick one indicator because plastic pollution is so diverse. When we talk about plastic and microplastic pollution, we need to talk about sizes, polymer types, additives and more.
The selected indicator species will largely depend on the research question we need answered. “For example, if we look at plastic pollution in terms of human health, we would pick a species that humans eat,” explains Dr. Provencher.
The goal is to start at the question and design monitoring programs to support it.
A harm reduction approach gives species the best chance at resilience
“Plastic pollution is a loss of a product to the environment...It is a huge issue. We need to regulate it because plastic pollution is not good for anyone,” states Dr. Provencher.
The challenge, she notes, is to determine where to start and what to prioritize. What plastic product, type or additives should government tackle first?
Also, while microplastics can leach chemicals and make animals feel full without adding nutritional value, microplastics themselves are not a singular issue.
“The threat of microplastics to fulmars is multifaceted. Plastic is not the only concern,” she explains.
While fulmars have been eating plastics for decades, they have also been battling several other stressors like bycatch or changing sea ice conditions.
“In a world of multiple environmental threats,” says Dr. Provencher, “we need to think of threats in a cumulative way.”
“In a world of multiple environmental threats,” says Dr. Provencher, “we need to think of threats in a cumulative way.”
To do so, Dr. Provencher looks to a harm reduction approach. “Borrowing from social work, harm reduction is about managing and removing all the things that can cause harm, so the population is more resilient,” she says.