FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – Dozens of birds found dead or sick on Central Florida beaches in the last month had plastic in their stomachs, according to the hospital caring for them.
Last month, News 6 told you about the birds washing up along Marineland shores in Flagler County. The Florida Wildlife Hospital in Palm Shores says it received over 70 shearwater birds due to an offshore storm that brought them inland.
[RELATED: Top 4 households items found in stomachs of dead birds]
Many of the birds did not survive and the ones that did were found to be suffering from organ failure.
“It doesn’t look like a lot by the stomach these came out of is about the size of a quarter. We’ve seen it in nearly all the birds we’ve looked at,” said Blue World Research Institute Senior Scientist Megan Stolen.
Shearwater birds are typically open ocean birds, if they are found on the beach, they typically are already experiencing organ failure.
According to the Florida Wildlife Hospital, to try and solve these mysterious bird deaths, one of the research volunteers performed a post-mortem examination and uncovered that most of the shearwaters had plastic built up in their stomachs.
It was found that it is likely that the birds were malnourished from the lack of nutrients in the food they were eating, and it potentially contributed to them not being able to endure the storms offshore.
Florida Wildlife Hospital Executive Director Tracy Frampton said that most of the pelagic birds recovered in a three-day span last month, but none survived treatment.
“That was a pretty significant number. Unfortunately, most of them are in very bad shape. There wasn’t much due to help them, and some of them even passed away in the car,” said Frampton.
She is hoping releasing information about necropsies can raise awareness and encourage people to limit their plastic use. Frampton said the plastic left on shores and even household trash not properly thrown away can cause a lot of damage to pelagic birds and other animals using the oceans to survive.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: