Marine birds’ plastic ingestion: A first study at the Northwestern Black Sea coast

Abstract

Seabirds are now facing plastic pollution worldwide, but there is a lack of data on plastic ingestion at the level of the Black Sea's unique basin.

We present a first complete assessment of the ingested plastic by two marine bird species (Larus cachinnans and Phalacrocorax carbo). Plastic fragments (>1 mm) were extracted from the birds’ stomachs, analyzed, and identified using FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy.

We found ingested plastic in 17.6% of individuals, with seagulls exhibiting 23.08% frequency of occurrence (FO), while in cormorants no plastic items were found. User plastics were the most common type ingested, with the off/white-clear and microplastics being the most common color and size encountered. The identified polymers were polyethylene mix (58.33%), polyethylene (33.33%) and polyamide (8.33%).

This is the first birds’ plastic ingestion study, both for Romanian and the Black Sea coastal region, highlighting the need for setting-up a seabird litter ingestion monitoring to properly mitigate plastic pollution in the Black Sea.