Blog #319 Microplastics found in Ospreys

 Sobering results are in from the University of Central Florida’s study quantifying microplastic pollution in the gastrointestinal tracts in birds of prey, especially in the  area’s two most abundant species, Osprey and red-shouldered hawks. Researchers discovered microplastics in the guts of 100% of the birds they examined! 

Plastic debris, both macro- and microplastics, found in the gut of this albatross, courtesy of ifl science. 

Microplastics are small plastic pieces -- smaller than 5 mm in diameter or less than the  size of a pencil tip -- that come from larger pieces of plastic or that are miniaturized for  use in health and beauty products or industrial purposes. The convenience provided by  plastic products has caused an increase of the annual production from 1.5 million tons  

in the 1950s to 335 million tons in 2016. Plastic materials are corrosion resistant,  durable, lightweight, inexpensive to produce, and chemically inert: now microplastics are a ubiquitous pollutant in the environment. 

The consumption of plastics is detrimental to the survival and reproduction of animal  species worldwide, including birds of prey. Ingestion of plastic has been found to lead to  strong inflammatory responses, blockages, reduced feeding, decreased energy,  delayed ovulation, reproductive failure, and ultimately starvation and death. Past studies  have documented increasing microplastics in the guts of fish, marine animals, and filter feeding invertebrates. Reports of whales dying from eating dozens of pounds of plastic are heart breaking. However, birds of prey have not been thoroughly examined before,  partly due to their protected status.

A tangle of monofilament fishing line and net threaten mother and offspring, courtesy of Media  Warehouse. 

Researchers at FCU found microplastics in the digestive systems of all birds examined,  with nearly 1,200 pieces of plastic pulled from 63 birds. Microfibers accounted for 86 %  of the plastics found. Microfibers can come from synthetic ropes or clothing and may  end up in ecosystems through wastewater from clothes-washing machines. Granted, a  little over 60 birds of prey in Florida is not a huge sample size; it's not possible to  make any firm conclusions about how pervasive the problem is nation-wide or even  state-wide. Nevertheless, these results are worrisome.

Plastic garbage will keep breaking down into smaller particles. 

Comparing plastic ingestion in raptors such as the red-shouldered hawk and Osprey  with different foraging strategies and trophic structures is important because it allows for  a comprehensive understanding of plastic consumption in animals across different  habitats and food webs, terminating with the top predators in the system. For example,  Osprey forage on live fish caught in estuaries, rivers, and lakes. Microplastics enter their  food web through aquatic animals eating them by mistake and accumulate in the gut of  their prey fish. Alternatively, red-shouldered hawks forage primarily in wooded and  suburban areas consuming live prey, including mammals, lizards, snakes, and  amphibians. Microplastics enter their food web by their prey eating contaminated  smaller mammals, amphibians, worms, and insects. 

Preliminary solutions to the microplastic problem involve removing plastic from open  landfills, proper discarding of plastic trash, purchasing natural fabrics instead of plastic based ones, and retrofitting water treatment plants and stormwater drains to capture  microplastics. Past generations went overboard, seeking the convenience of plastics.  Now, we must rid the planet of plastic; it begins with the individual.  

One effective way to reduce microplastic fibers from entering Cayuga Lake is with your  wallet. Don’t buy goods unnecessarily packaged in plastic, and watch what you wear.  More on microplastics and what you can do to keep them out of the lake is in the next  blog. To be continued . . . 

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell  

Friends of Salt Point  

Cayuga Osprey Network 

Lansing, NY  

cec222@gmail.com 

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP PROTECT OSPREYS:  

• Avoid getting too close to nesting sites during the breeding season. If an animal  vocalizes, you are too close! Back off Immediately. 

• Carry binoculars to view wildlife from afar. 

• Restore, clean, and preserve lakeshore and wetland habitat. 

• Help keep local waters clean, healthy, and safe. 

• Recycle used fishing line, which can be hazardous to Osprey.  

• Join the Cayuga Osprey Network and volunteer to help monitor Osprey nests. Write to:  cec222@gmail.com. 

EYES ON OSPREYS 

WATCH! 

Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam 2021 

READ! 

On Osprey Time—A Blog on the Ospreys of Salt Point 

VISIT! 

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #481 Sunshine at Last!

Image
  Last week’s 2 week old chicks. Now they look completely different, courtesy of Facebook. Meteorologists report this is the 6 th  day of sun in all of May with more rain in the forecast. This is good for the plants but potentially damaging to the Ospreys. Foul weather rots eggs and makes hunting difficult to impossible at a time when the hatchlings are most vulnerable to the starvation, cold, and predation. Despite the challenges of fishing in windy, rainy conditions, Orpheus succeeded in keeping the family fed by catching small, nearshore fish and making up for deficiencies with large trout whenever there was a break in the weather. A foggy morning feeding the 2 ½ week-old chicks, Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. The 3 week-old chicks in their reptilian phase, courtesy of YouTube. Oakley, the eldest chick, just turned two-weeks old and is passing into the Reptilian Phase,  where the now darker, scaly chicks. In this transitional phase Oakley’s buff down is quickly replaced w...
Read more

Blog #482 Where Ospreys are Starving

Image
Male Osprey landing a beauty, enough to feed the entire family trout, courtesy of Patrick Marshall. Ospreys of the Cayuga Lake Osprey colony, live in the stunning heart of New York’s Finger Lakes of a terrific about centered on Cayuga Lake may lull us into complacent thinking that all is well in their world. Life for Ospreys near Cayuga is certainly good for our in this inland colony with lots to eat and seeming endless nesting possibilities, but an ecological tragedy is in the making not far away. Osprey chicks are starving and whole colonies collapsing in the Chesapeake Bay region, home of the world’s highest concentration of breeding Ospreys (until recently estimated at 10,000 breeding pairs). The tragedy is caused by a sharp decline of their dietary staple, menhaden, called “the most important fish in the sea” by author H. Bruce Franklin. Ospreys, striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, whales, and a myriad of other coastal and marine species dependent on menhaden for food are all declin...
Read more

Blog #461 Sneak Peek at Osprey Season 2024

Image
  Orpheus (L) and Ursula at their Salt Point Nest March 26, courtesy of Cindy Sedlacek. The following is a sneak peek at what this Osprey summer will entail. Our northeastern Ospreys return to their breeding habitats just after the early spring thaw. This year’s first Osprey was seen in Cayuga Lake Basin on March 15, an early date many attribute to  the mild winter. Most nest occupants will have returned to their nests and reunited with their mates by this weekend. These returning Ospreys have just completed their 2,000–4,000-mile migrations from their wintering areas along the coasts of South America and in the wild Amazonian tropics. The range of landscapes that a cosmopolitan Osprey can experience in its lifetime is staggering. In general, the older breeding males arrive on their nests followed by their mates in a few days. After that first wave of older Ospreys arrive, unmated adults and second-year birds migrating north for the first time after spending two years in the S...
Read more