Increasing amounts of anthropogenic debris enter the ocean because of mismanagement in coastal communities and, despite a global ban on deliberate dumping, also from vessels, endangering wildlife. Assessing marine plastic pollution directly is challenging, and an alternative is to use seabirds as bioindicators. Our analyses of long time-series (26-years) revealed substantial variation in the amount, characteristics and origin of marine debris (mainly macroplastics and mesoplastics, and excluding fishing gear) associated with seabirds at South Georgia, and, for two species, long-term increases in incidence since 1994. Annual debris recovery rates (items per capita) were 14 × higher in wandering albatrosses Diomedea exulans, and 6 × higher in grey-headed albatrosses Thalassarche chrysostoma and giant petrels Macronectes spp., than in black-browed albatrosses T. melanophris, partly related to differences in egestion (regurgitation), which clears items from the proventriculus. Although some debris types were common in all species, wandering albatrosses and giant petrels ingested higher proportions that were food-related or generic wrapping, gloves, clear or mixed colour, and packaged in South America. This was highly likely to originate from vessels, including the large South American fishing fleets with which they overlap. Debris associated with the two smaller albatrosses was more commonly shorter, rigid (miscellaneous plastic and bottle/tube caps), and packaged in East Asia. Grey-headed albatrosses are exposed to large and increasing amounts of user plastics transported from coastal South America in the Subantarctic Current, or discarded from vessels and circulating in the South Atlantic Gyre, whereas the lower debris ingestion by black-browed albatrosses suggests that plastic pollution in Antarctic waters remains relatively low. Current plastic loads in our study species seem unlikely to have an impact at the population level, but the results nevertheless affirm that marine plastics are a major, trans-boundary animal-welfare and environmental issue that needs to be addressed by much-improved waste-management practices and compliance-monitoring both on land and on vessels in the south Atlantic.

中文翻译：

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佐治亚州南部的信天翁和海藻，是西南大西洋沿岸船只输入的海洋垃圾的定点。

由于沿海社区管理不善，尽管全球禁止有意倾倒船只和船只的行为，但越来越多的人为碎片进入海洋，这危及野生生物。直接评估海洋塑料污染具有挑战性，替代方法是使用海鸟作为生物指示剂。我们对长时间序列（26年）的分析显示，与乔治亚州南部海鸟相关的海洋垃圾（主要是大塑性和中塑性，但不包括渔具）的数量，特征和来源存在很大差异，而对于两个物种，其变化很大自1994年以来发病率呈长期上升趋势。流浪信天翁Diomedea exulans的年碎片回收率（人均项目）高14倍，而灰头信天翁Thalassarche chrysostoma和巨型海燕Macronectes spp。，年均碎片回收率高6倍。比黑眉信天翁（T. melanophris）要好一些，这部分与食欲（反流）的差异有关，后者可以清除前列腺上的东西。尽管所有物种中都存在一些碎片类型，但信天翁和海燕的进食比例较高，这些食品相关或通用包装，手套，透明或混合色以及在南美包装。这很可能源自船只，包括与之重叠的大型南美捕鱼船队。与两个较小信天翁相关的杂物通常更短，更硬（塑料杂物和瓶/管盖），并在东亚包装。灰头信天翁暴露于亚南极洋流中从南美沿海地区运来的越来越多的用户塑料中，或从船只中丢弃并在南大西洋回旋处循环，而黑眉信天翁摄入的碎片较少，这表明南极水域的塑料污染仍然相对较低。目前我们研究的物种中的塑料负载似乎不太可能对种群水平产生影响，但结果仍然表明，海洋塑料是一个重大的跨界动物福利和环境问题，需要通过大量改进的废物解决。南大西洋的陆地和船只上的管理实践和合规性监控。