The amount of marine debris, including plastics, is increasing worldwide, and there are concerns about its impact on marine organisms. For this reason, the distribution of marine debris has long been investigated by visual surveys from ships and airplanes and by collection using plankton nets. However, the distribution of marine debris in the open ocean, far from land, and the overlap with foraging areas of seabirds, which frequently feed on marine debris, have not been well studied.
Among seabirds, albatrosses, which feed on a wide range of food floating on the ocean surface, are known to feed more frequently on marine debris, especially plastics. Recent advances in bio-logging technology have made it possible to attach GPS- and video-loggers to albatrosses to reveal detailed foraging behavior, such as when, where, and what it is eating. In this study, in the process of ecological research using such technology, we investigated the distribution of marine debris from the viewpoint of seabirds, and succeeded in clarifying the degree of the overlap with foraging areas and behavioral responses to debris.
