The record for plastic ingestion among these seabirds has been broken every year since 2023. On an Australian island, researchers found a pale-footed puffin with 894 pieces of plastic, or more than 15% of its body weight, in its stomach.
For fifteen years, researchers from the Adrift Lab have been examining the level of plastic ingested by wildlife on Lord Howe Island (Australia), including pale-footed puffins (Ardenna carneipes) by regularly washing their stomachs. This is the oldest study on the ingestion of this waste conducted in the world. Over time, the results are increasingly worrying. Between 2023 and 2026, the record was broken every year, reaching 894 pieces of plastic discovered in a single seabird.
The first record was set in 2011, with 276 pieces weighing 64.1 grams removed from the body of a small individual of this species with dark gray plumage. « We thought it was the worst possible scenario, because a bird of this size could not survive by ingesting more plastic. We were wrong, » warns Alex Bond, curator and co-author of the study published on Thursday, September 10 in the journal Earth’s Future.
The equivalent of an 80-kilo man filled with 12 kilos of plastic
It took more than ten years for it to be overtaken by another in 2023, which had consumed more than 400 fragments. The holder in 2026 of the sad title had a full stomach of 894 pieces of plastic or 64.2 grams. A mass that represents more than 15% of the expected weight of a young puffin, the equivalent of an 80-kilogram human being weighted with 12 kilograms of polymers.
« Between 2023 and 2026, the record for the largest amount of plastic ingested by these birds was broken year after year. The plastic crisis is only getting worse, but we are far from acting quickly enough to try to remedy it, » explains Alex Bond bitterly.
An involuntary deadly diet and measures to be taken
Birds do not eat all this waste directly. It is their parents who confuse them with food when they go in search of prey in the open sea and see them floating. They then return to the mainland to bring them back to their little ones, eager to enjoy their meal in this toxic case. The sharp increase in the ingestion of these pollutants by these populations reflects, above all, the growing amount of waste that ends up in the oceans of the globe.
It also shows the importance of long-term studies, so as not to miss out on changes and develop a database. The team highlights in particular in its report an increase in the proportion of plastic resin granules, called « nurdles », and bottle caps among the garbage found in animals. According to it, legislative measures to improve the recycling of these objects, such as the obligation to attach caps to bottles, will be crucial to stem plastic pollution, while negotiations for a global treaty on this scourge continue.
