Pollution in the seas has gotten from bad to worse over the years. Plastics top the ranks when it comes to identifying the culprits behind this crisis. A recent study shows that party balloons are the most detrimental of all the plastic items.
Surveys show that over a quarter of 1,700 seabird deaths were caused by the accidental ingestion of plastic items littered in beaches and seas. Four out of 10 autopsied birds were found out to have ingested pieces of balloons that they might have mistaken for food.
Even if the plastic items including balloon pieces eaten by the birds only take about 5% of their stomach's content, it can still cause complications in their digestive tracks that could lead in death. In recent reports, researchers have noted that a swallowed balloon can cause blockage in a bird's guts and cause it to starve to death. It was also emphasized that it is 32 times more likely for a balloon to cause death among seabirds than a piece of hard plastic could. Other complications include an infection in the bird's gastrointestinal tracks.
According to a study, seabirds swallow balloon debris as it resembles a squid. When inside their system, soft plastic litter like balloon debris get stuck and compacted inside the bird's gut and cause obstructions that can be fatal. Whereas, when they ingest a piece of hard plastic, there is a better chance for them to pass it out than they would a piece of soft plastic.
In another study, the lifetime mortality for a bird ingesting a single plastic item is 20%. This rate rises to 100% chance of dying when it reaches a count of 93 pieces of plastic items. This means that an increased frequency of consuming plastic will inevitably cause the birds death.
Currently, the sea is playing host to 280,000 tons of floating debris. Unfortunately, these floating marine debris are being ingested by over half of all seabird species daily. Studies have shown that by 2050, all but 1% of seabird species have already ingested plastic marine debris.
As there are efforts being done by different environmentalist groups to address this problem which include picking up garbage by the beaches and reducing plastic usage, these said groups are still hoping for the proper awareness, consciousness, and action of the public. This will surely benefit the cause to clean up the oceans and save the wildlife that thrives in it.
