Plastic waste and marine wildlife
Annually between 5 and 13 million tonnes of plastic are lost from land to sea and end up as what is known as ‘the plastic soup’. Marine birds and other wildlife accidentally ingest plastic litter or become entangled. Wageningen Marine Research investigates the impact of plastic debris on the marine environment and its wildlife. Our institute is founder of a permanent monitoring program of plastics in stomachs of Northern Fulmars in the North Sea. Results are used by Dutch and European authorities to evaluate and plan measures to reduce marine litter.
Northern fulmars are seabirds that spend their lives in and around the North Sea and Arctic waters. They frequently mistake small pieces of litter for food and swallow them, even though their stomachs cannot digest the waste. Therefore, dead fulmars are a good indicator of how much plastic there is in the sea.
Around 93% of all the found fulmars have pieces of plastic in their stomachs, an average of 20 items and 0.20 grams per animal. The 'Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic' (OSPAR) stipulates that no more than 10% of fulmars should have more than 0.1 grams of plastic in their stomachs.
The European Union has now embedded the fulmar research in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and uses the methodology to monitor all European waters, including other species.
Although the amount of plastics found in fulmars' stomachs is slowly decreasing, the intended threshold is still far from being achieved. And even when the threshold value will be reached, the work of creating a truly clean marine environment will be far from over.
News about plastic waste and marine wildlife
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Beached sea turtle studied for plastic ingestion
- Last winter an unusual number of sea turtles beached on the Dutch coast. Some were alive and transported to rehabilitation centres, others however did... -
New report on plastic in northern fulmars from the year 2022 published
- In 2022, volunteers collected 66 suitable dead fulmars along the Dutch coast. The data from these birds is used for the long-term study of plastic...
Publications
Reports
2021
2020
2019
2018
2016
2015
- Fulmar Litter EcoQO monitoring in the Netherlands - Update 2014 Van Franeker, J.A. IMARES rapport C123/15
- Impact of marine debris on Antarctic fur seals Arctocephalus gazella at Cape Shirreff: diet dependent ingestion and entanglement. Preliminary result - 2015
2014
- Plastic ingestion by Northern Fulmars, Fulmarus glacialis, in Svalbard and Iceland, and relationships between plastic ingestion and contaminant uptake. Trevail, A.M., Gabrielsen, G.W., Kühn, S., Bock, A. & Van Franeker, J.A. 2014. Norsk PolarInstitutt Kort rapport/ Brief Report Series 2014-029. (24pp)
- Fulmar Litter EcoQO monitoring in the Netherlands - Update 2012 and 2013 Van Franeker, J.A., S. Kühn, E.L. Bravo Rebolledo & A. Meijboom (2014) IMARES Report C122/14. IMARES, Texel. 56pp
2013
2011
2010
- Fulmar Litter EcoQO Monitoring in the Netherlands 1979-2008 in relation to EU Directive 000/59/EC on Port Reception Facilities mei 2010 - IMARES
- Marine Strategy Framework Directive - Task Group 10 Report Marine litter - april 2010 - SETAC Conferentie, Spanje
2009
2008
Publications
2019
2018
2017
- Van Franeker, J.A., Offereins, M. & Domis, M. 2017. Plastic soep en Stormvogels. NVOX 42 : 520-522. (Magazine voor het Onderwijs in Natuurwetenschappen; Dec.2017). https://www.nvon.nl/nvox
- Does DMS buildup really explain plastic ingestion by seabirds? A comment on Savoca et al. Gaia Dell’Ariccia, Richard A. Phillips, Jan A. van Franeker, Nicolas Gaidet, Paulo Catry, José P. Granadeiro, Peter G. Ryan, Francesco Bonadonna (2017) Science Advances
2016
- The use of potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution as a suitable approach to isolate plastics ingested by marine organisms. Kühn, S., Van Werven, B., Van Oyen, A., Meijboom, A., Bravo Rebolledo, E.L. & Van Franeker, J.A. 2016. Marine Pollution Bulletin (online)
- Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization. Provencher, J.F., Bond, A.L., Avery-Gomm, S., Borrelle, S.B., Bravo Rebolledo, E.L., Hammer, S., Kühn, S., Lavers, J.L., Mallory, M.L., Trevail, A. & Van Franeker, J.A. (2016) Analytical Methods (online)
2015
- Seabirds, gyres and global trends in plastic pollution. Van Franeker, J.A. & Law, K.L. 2015. Environmental Pollution 203: 89-96
- Microplastic in a macro filter feeder: Humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae E. Besselinga, E.M. Foekema, J.A. Van Franeker, M.F. Leopold, S. Kühn, E.L. Bravo Rebolledo, E. Heße, L. Mielke, J. IJzer, P. Kamminga, A.A. Koelmans. Marine Pollution Bulletin
- Elevated levels of ingested plastic in a high Arctic seabird, the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). Trevail, A.M., Gabrielsen, G.W., Kühn, S. & Van Franeker, J.A. 2015. Polar Biology
- Linking effects of anthropogenic debris to ecological impacts. Mark Anthony Browne, A. J. Underwood, M. G. Chapman, Rob Williams, Richard C. Thompson, Jan A. van Franeker. Proceedings Royal Society B 20142929 (11pp).
2014
- Monitoring Plastic Waste using FTIR Spectroscopy. Abstracts EUCMOS 2014 - aug 2014
- The OSPAR Ecological Quality Objective on plastics ingested by fulmars. Van Franeker, J.A.; & the SNS Fulmar Study Group 2014. International Marine Conservation Congress, Glasgow, Scotland 14-18 August 2014. Oral contribution SY71.1.
2013
2012
- Plastic ingestion by harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) in The Netherlands. Bravo Rebolledo, E.L., Van Franeker, J.A., Jansen, O.E. & Brasseur, M.J.M. Marine Pollution Bulletin (2012 in press)
- Dietary variation in chick-feeding and self-provisioning Cape Petrel Daption capense and snow petrel Pagodroma nivea at Signy Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica Marine Ornithology 40: 81–87 (2012)
- Plastic ingestion by the Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) in Iceland. 2012 -article Marine Pollution Bulletin (in press, online)
2011
- Monitoring plastic ingestion by the northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis in the North Sea. 2011 - Environmental Pollution
- Van Franeker, J.A. & SNS Fulmar Study Group 2011. A standard protocol for monitoring marine debris using seabird stomach contents: the Fulmar EcoQO approach from the North Sea. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS-OR&R-38: 116-120
- Van Franeker, J.A. 2011. Reshape and relocate: seabirds as transformers and transporters of microplastics. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS-OR&R-38:278-280
- Van Franeker, J.A. & SNS Fulmar Study Group 2011. Chemicals in marine plastics and potential risks for a seabird like the Northern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS-OR&R-38: 415-418
- Marine Litter - Technical recommendations for the implementation of MSFD requirements 2011 - Joint Research Centre
- Plastic Debris in the Ocean. 17 feb 2011 - Chapter in UNEP Yearbook 2011
2009
- Monitoring the abundance of plastic debris in the marine environment. 2009 - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
- Foolish fulmars and their contribution to ecological quality. 2009 - abstract Proceedings of the International Research Workshop on the Occurrence, Effects and Fate of Microplastic Marine Debris