Plastic named as major factor in extinction risk to kittiwakes

THE kittiwake has been added to the list of British birds facing global extinction, with plastic, pollution, climate change and overfishing blamed for catastrophic declines this century.

The familiar seabirds used to nest in their millions around the UK’S shores but only around 300,000 breeding pairs remain. It is the first British bird to be added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, where plastic has been a factor in its decline. Kittiwakes have been found dead in fishing nets, while oil pollution and plastic litter can kill chicks in the nest.

Since 2000, bird populations have dropped by 87 per cent in Orkney and Shetland, and by 96 per cent on St Kilda in the Western Isles. Earlier this year, a two-month Greenpeace survey of the important kittiwake stronghold at Bass Rock, in the Firth of Forth, found plastic bags, packaging and netting strewn in nesting sites, and microplastics in the water. The RSPB said plastics and pollution made survival even harder for populations already struggling to feed themselves and their young.

Laura Bambini, RSPB Scotland’s seabird recovery officer, said: “Some efforts are under way to protect important seabird foraging areas in international waters, but there is much more we could do around the UK.”

Globally, the species is thought to have declined by 40 per cent since the Seventies, justifying today’s uplisting from Least Concern to Vulnerable. In the North Sea, sand eels provide a vital food source for breeding seabirds. However, they are heavily fished to be used for animal feed and fertiliser. Rising sea temperatures also threaten sand eels, so kittiwake food supplies could be affected by both local and large-scale processes.

Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, wants more of Britain’s foreign aid budget to be spent on tackling the problem of plastic pollution.

A study by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany found 90 per cent of plastic in the world’s oceans comes from ten rivers, eight of which are in Asia and two in Africa. Currently only a small proportion of the £13bn annual Department for International Development (Dfid) budget is spent on reducing plastic pollution, but Mr Gove wants more to be set aside to address the problem, The Times reported.

A separate study by the University of Exeter showed that hundreds of marine turtles die every year after becoming entangled in rubbish in the oceans and on beaches. The research was published in Endangered Species Research.