Humans are dumping so much plastic debris into the water that by 2050 nearly every single seabird species will have some of it in their gut, scientists predict.
In a study published Monday, researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia and Imperial College London analyzed studies dating to the early 1960s and used oceanographic and ecological modeling to predict the risk of plastic ingestion to 186 seabird species globally.
They found that nearly 60 percent of all seabird species have plastic in their gut, and that figure will rise to 99 percent by 2050, based on current trends. The risk is greatest at the southern boundary of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, a region thought to be relatively pristine, the researchers concluded.