Big thanks to Ocean Protect #Podcast for giving our team a platform to talk about #plastics #seabirds and the value of #LongTermMonitoring podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/o...

Dr Jennifer Lavers on what long-term data shows about population impacts of ocean plastic pollution

Podcast Episode · Ocean Protect Podcast · 27 September · 48min

podcasts.apple.com

You need to be REALLY careful about casually assuming things are AI-generated & reacting strongly, recently I’ve seen people on here get it wrong with both artwork & tech

Kasey Gifford@kaseygifford.bsky.social · last wk.

Wow. LOISH got accused of using Ai to make her art. I started following her on early deviantart. I remember first seeing her paintings in college. This is ridiculous, no one is safe. Artists Ive followed for actual decades are getting harassed because their work has been stolen and regurgitated.

Over the years, our team has been subjected to academic #bullying. Sometimes in the form of rebuttal papers, written by the same group of people. Rife with grammatical, statistical & plotting errors, the tone invariably personal & offensive. We have never responded. Until now.

#Translocation is increasingly used to relocate vulnerable species away from high-risk sites. But as ocean temperatures rise, storm activity is shifting. Islands once considered safe from #cyclones are being pushed into the danger zone #Conservation #ornithology #OceanWarming #birds #ClimateChange

Exposure to #plastic is increasing rapidly, but few consequences have been described in detail. Does this mean we’re worrying about nothing? Nope! Our #NewPaper highlights the bio-mechanical consequences of #PlasticIngestion on the stomach. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

One of the most important plots we’ve ever made helped us answer a question we’re constantly asked: “is the amount of ingested plastic increasing?” Answer: yes, there’s been a sustained and rapid increase in #plastics in Sable #Shearwaters since 2021

I asked undergrad field techs to do a simple task, which was record when storm-petrels in our long-term study site had damage. The following is a partial list of the codes they used to indicate 'no damage'

Killer talk by Drs Lavers and de jersey of @adriftlab.bsky.social. They did a meta-analysis of plastic impacts to Sable shearwaters on Lord Howe. They used data from 20+ datasets collected over 15 years on 90-day old chicks. They found at low plastic levels there are major impacts. #wsc4 🧪

Our newest team member has arrived: meet Chip (short for Chipolata). After the sudden loss of Ms Vienna Sausage, our remaining dog, Farley Mowat, was feeling rather lonely.

Each year, @bou.org.uk presents awards to recognise individuals who have made an outstanding contribution within ornithology. Nominations for the 2026 awards close on 15 September 2026. It is not necessary to be a BOU member to submit a nomination bou.org.uk/about-the-bo...

While #AdriftLab's research primarily focuses on the effects of #PlasticPollution, sometimes our projects dont go according to plan. Adapting to changing situations is an important skill in science, and so...that's precisely what we did for our newest project

Our @adriftlab.bsky.social blog post for our latest paper is now up: The Birds That Never Came Home: Long-Term Data Reveal Population-Level Impacts of Ocean Plastic Pollution adriftlab.org/news/the-bir... #ornithology #PlasticPollution

The Birds That Never Came Home: Long-Term Data Reveal Population-Level Impacts of Ocean Plastic Pollution

For decades, scientists have documented plastic inside the stomachs of seabirds. We have measured it, weighed it, counted it, photographed it, and described the damage it causes.

adriftlab.org

For years, one of the most common criticisms of #PlasticPollution research was that we could show harm to individual animals, but not to populations. Today, after 15 years of fieldwork, we finally have an answer. #IngestedPlastic reduces #seabird survival, and thus, can drive POPULATION decline

Big new @adriftlab.bsky.social paper - we show for the first time that plastics affects seabirds at the POPULATION level. Plastic ingested as a chick reduces recruitment of birds to the breeding population. And the story is pretty grim. 🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New @adriftlab.bsky.social study alert: we looked for plastic in the guts of 44 juvenile sharks and chimaera from the Bass Strait, gummy shark, southern saw shark, and elephant shark, all bycatch from 2018 trawl and longline fishing. 🦈 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Last night #AdriftLab were fortunate to attend a T’ɬakwagilogwa Cultural Event on Comorant Island in a remote corner of western Canada. Afterwards, one of the Elders invited us to a private event where we witnessed a Welcome Ceremony between two neighboring tribes.

Marine Environmental Research gave us 3 weeks to revise a paper. We asked for a 1-month extension because the first author is overseas. They said no, the most they can give is 2 weeks. Otherwise it's considered withdrawn.

A very strong El Niño is under way, strengthening through 2026 and into 2027. This presents a unique opportunity to observe and document how seabirds are responding to a warming ocean. Researchers, monitoring programmes and citizen scientists worldwide are warmly invited. Register: bit.ly/45hEsWz

Terribly sad news this morning. The loss of Bill Montevecch to the seabird community will be greatly felt 💔 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

World-renowned seabird biologist Bill Montevecchi has died | CBC News

Seabird biologist and Memorial University professor emeritus Bill Montevecchi died early Saturday morning. He was 80 years-old.

cbc.ca

NEW PAPER: Sable Shearwaters are long-lived migratory #seabirds that spend much of their lives at sea. Across their life cycle, they experience very different physiological demands. Read the paper (free) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Life‐stage variation in Sable Shearwater (<fi>Ardenna carneipes</fi>) physiology assessed using proteomics

Life-stage transitions in seabirds involve substantial shifts in physiological demands, yet the molecular mechanisms underpinning these changes remain poorly resolved. Here we applied untargeted data....

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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

Excited to share our #NewPaper in collaboration with BirdLife & #TraditionalOwners. We recorded Wedge-tailed #Shearwater body condition & #IngestedPlastics on a remote island in #Vanuatu

🍗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...

Effect of plastic composition in the combustion material on the Persistent Organic Pollutant content in smoked chicken meat

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...

journals.plos.org

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 💙🪢🐦🌊

“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

Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS@euanritchie.bsky.social · 4mo ago

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

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 💙

For decades, researchers have measured #PlasticPollution by counting individual pieces. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story: internal damage caused by plastic (eg. inflammation) is largely invisible

Our new research shows that HPAI increased Northern Gannet mortality by a factor of ~6 and ~4 at two of the world’s largest colonies. We predict this impact will take almost two decades to recover from. #biologicalconservation #seabirds #hpai Full paper: doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2026.111887

Another hard year for the #birds & our team. In 2 weeks we removed 1.1 kg of #plastics from Australian #shearwater chicks (>8850 pieces). Balloons clips, clothes pegs, tiling spacers, strapping tape, drink lids, nurdles, toys, cutlery - the list goes on & on 😞 #SeabirdSaturday #PlasticPollution

Over the past 20 yr, much of our research has been underpinned by our ability to apply numbered metal bands to young #seabirds so we can track their success over time. Jenn holds our #banding license, and has applied 1000s of bands. Each team member plays a key role; this has been one of Jenn’s.