Abstract
Summary Objectives: The Fulmar study has been developed over a number of years in the Netherlands and has more recently been developed as an OSPAR Ecological Quality Objective. The research looks into the amount of plastic found in the stomachs of northern fulmars as a means of monitoring plastics in the environment. Fulmars are purely oceanic foragers, they regulary ingest litter and accumulate wear-resistant items in their stomach. Stomach contents provide an integrated picture of litter abundance at the sea surface. The Netherlands have a long term data set from 1979-2006. The group provided the UK with data on their birds between 2002-2006. The extra funding will provide data from 2006-2011 (Jan Van Franeker has kept the UK previous years samples in storage). This funding will allow the research to contribute towards the MSFD descriptor 10 (marine litter) and for OSPAR EcoQO monitoring in the North Sea. Key Customer Purpose The result will be used to inform the MSFD Descriptor 10 on marine litter under the criteria 10.2: Impacts of litter on marine life, specifically Indicator 10.2.1: Trends in the amount and composition of litter ingested by marine animals (e.g. stomach analysis). It will provide the UK with a data set from 2002 and will be useful in determining the presence of marine litter in the environment, any trends over time and will also give a comparison between OSPAR regions.
United Kingdom