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Article: A steady diet of ... plastic?(SPECTRUM)(plastics kill fulmarus glacialis)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Environment
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Seabirds scavenging over the North Sea are eating more than just fish, new research shows, and their diets may be harming them. Plastic fragments have been found in the stomachs of 95 percent of all fulmars washing up dead along the shores of the North Sea. The gull-like fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) feeds on fish waste and crustaceans and retains debris ingested accidentally--a characteristic that leads marine biologist and team leader Jan van Franeker to call fulmars "flying dustbins." Van Franeker and his team have analyzed 560 dead fulmars collected from 8 countries. Along the Dutch part of the North Sea, which is two to four times more littered than other areas, fulmars ...