Seas endanger birds

Rubbish that ends up in New Zealand waters has the potential to cause more damage to seabird populations than anywhere else in the world.

Forest & Bird spokeswoman Karen Baird said New Zealand’s unique number of seabirds meant the potential impact of plastic rubbish was heightened.

‘‘Even though we don’t have the most plastic pollution, we are unique in the world in having so many seabird species in New Zealand. We also have the most threatened seabird species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world.’’

Now, research presented to Parliament by Forest & Bird shows the risk of plastic to seabirds is worse around NZ than anywhere else in the world.

The unfussy eating habits of many seabirds meant that animals looking for a feed of kaimoana were instead getting a belly full of plastic.

Both adults and chicks could starve to death because their stomachs became full of plastic.

Dr Stephanie Borrelle, a conservation ecologist at Auckland University of Technology, said there were 86 breeding species of seabird in NZ – of which about a third were endemic. The country also had a high proportion of procellariiformes – an order of seabirds that included albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels – that were particularly susceptible to eating plastic.

Plastic tended to float on the surface or stay at a shallow level where the birds fed.

NZ has 36 species of seabirds that breed only here – the country with the next highest number of endemic birds was Mexico with five.

Turtles have also shown to be at risk in our waters.