Plastic debris in Tasmanian bird nests
During January 2020 Zuzanna and Joanna went to CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia thanks to NAWA PROM Programme. In Tasmania, they collaborate with dr. Lauren Roman and dr. Eric Woehler. During the stay, they performed the first part of the project entitled "Assessing the risk of plastic to coastal seabirds through entanglement and ingestion". Dr Lauren Roman is an expert on plastic ingestion by birds, so Zuzanna and Joanna learnt the research methods and performed several analyses. The most important part of the project was the fieldwork - investigating the frequency of incorporation of anthropogenic materials in nests of seabirds, nesting in colonies. The study species were: kelp gull, silver gull, pacific gull, black-faced cormorant. Also, we noted the entanglement cases. Fortunately, we observed only a few cases of entanglement. Preliminary results show that 18% of checked nests contained anthropogenic materials (mostly fishing line). During the stay, Zuzanna and Joanna also managed to visit some of the national parks at this amazing island.
