🍗Waste incl. #plastics are used to smoke food. New study highlights that this process releases various very toxic chemicals that contaminate the smoked food incl. PAHs (eg benzo[a]pyrene), dioxins, PCBs & PCDD/Fs along a contamination gradient: Wood < PE < PS < PVC.
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
“At the moment, the government is short-changing future generations, and will leave them with a degraded environment, uninsurable homes, and without many of the amazing nature experiences and benefits we have today”
- me
In April, our team recovered a white plastic coin that read “Republic of Play Money”. It was produced in the Philippines in 1991.
Thus, it spent ~35 years in the ocean before being ingested by an adult #shearwater while foraging in the #TasmanSea
The adult #bird then mistakenly fed the coin to its chick alongside 499 additional plastics, including 2 balloon clips, 2 tile spacers, & 10 bottle caps.
The coin highlights just how long some plastics persist (intact) in our oceans.
#GlobalPlasticsTreaty #PlasticPollution #seabirds #monitoring
journals.plos.org
Traditional food smoking in Vietnam often uses biomass fuels, but the incidental inclusion of plastics can generate toxic pollutants. This study evaluated the effects of polyethylene (PE), polystyrene...
More than 400 scientists, young people, Indigenous leaders, and conservation experts have written collectively to @albomp.bsky.social and @jimchalmers.bsky.social, pleading for adequate $ to protect and restore nature biodiversitycouncil.org.au/news/scienti... - @biodivcouncil.bsky.social
Deep frustration with the budget has led more than 400 scientists, young people, Indigenous leaders, and conservation experts to write collectively to the Prime Minister and Treasurer, pleading for ad...
This hand-painted #shearwater was sent to an #AdriftLab team member with a note about #kindness and #gratitude.
A reminder that whatever your talent, it has the greatest impact when used for good. Who knows, your small gesture might just be the kindness that someone desperately needed 💙
Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS
Big thanks to the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) for funding this research 🙏
#IndigenousScience #PlasticPollution #birds
Read the paper (free) doi.org/10.1071/PC26...
Check out these stunning artworks made from #plastic rope recovered from Australian beaches and woven into #art featuring the bones of #seabirds that washed up on many of the same beaches. This wonderful #ArtScience collaboration is all thanks to Castaway Textiles 💙🪢🐦🌊
Excited to share our #NewPaper in collaboration with BirdLife & #TraditionalOwners. We recorded Wedge-tailed #Shearwater body condition & #IngestedPlastics on a remote island in #Vanuatu
Laika Island, Vanuatu, hosts the third largest colony of Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, locally known as koroliko (Ardenna pacifica). In collaboration with the
What did we find? In this part of the #SouthPacific, the birds appear to be doing well with many large (chubby) chicks and almost zero #plastics detected 🥳
Our study highlights the value of:
- working with local communities
- monitoring #seabirds across their range
