More about litter and consequences for the natural environment?

Wageningen UR investigates the problems related to plastic litter in marine-, fresh water- and other natural environments. This ranges from plastic debris in the sea (‘Plastic Soup’) to invisible small plastic particles in rivers. Researchers of Wageningen Marine Research have been monitoring the abundance of plastic debris in stoachs of Northern Fulmars in the North Sea for over 30 years. That research forms the basis for monitoring programs also in other European marine areas. In part this concerns plastic ingestion by other bird species, but also by for example marine turtles, mammals and fishes in European waters and elsewhere.