Plastics

Background

Plastic use has increased globally since its first introduction in the 1950s. Since that time it has provided a cost-effective alternative to other packaging but is not without its own negative side effects.  Most plastic products are incredibly durable and therefore break down very slowly causing mounting issues with waste management and pollution. Plastic pollution can be found everywhere in the environment from shorelines to ditches. Each year wildlife is impacted by plastic pollution either from entanglements in discarded items or ingestion of plastic particles. The long term impacts of exposure to plastic pollution are not well documented in wildlife or people.

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WHAT WE ARE DOING

In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada, the CWHC is developing the capacity for national monitoring and surveillance of plastics and wildlife, along with targeted outreach and educational materials and new technologies to store, share and utilize monitoring and observational data.
Project highlights include: (mt)

1. Harmonization and capacity building – developing shared protocols for plastics monitoring in wildlife and application of standardized methodologies through capacity building, training and protocols for wildlife specialists among CWHC regional centres.
2. Health monitoring – plastics monitoring among wildlife could provide an ongoing indicator of wildlife health, human health risks and environmental impacts, including cumulative effects of compounding health issues. This includes cause of death analysis that may involve plastic pollution (entanglements, ingestions, etc.), as well as incidental reporting of plastic pollution ingestion or entanglement and their characterization. This will help assess the level of wildlife exposure to plastic pollution and add to our knowledge of the composition of plastic pollution in harvested species, in particular traditional subsistence foods.
3. Health intelligence – A key activity of the CWHC includes information management, we have developed innovative technologies to support our programs, both our Wildlife Health Intelligence Platform (WHIP) and the information contained within are used nationally and internationally for official reporting of select diseases as well as providing situational awareness of wildlife health issues, including those affecting agriculture, conservation and human health. A “plastic pollution module” within the CWHC Wildlife Health Intelligence Platform (WHIP) platform is being developed to allow for the central input, analysis and assessment of plastics data.
4. Knowledge mobilization – addressing critical knowledge gaps with evidence based decision making includes accurate and consistent monitoring data. New and complimentary reporting products are being developed or modified to include plastic pollution, including citizen science tools and the use of social media to engage a broad spectrum of individuals and organizations. Our knowledge mobilization includes the use of social media to raise awareness of wildlife health issues and encourage actions among the public as well as peer reviewed publications, summary reporting, risk and policy assessments, management guidelines and incident reports, including that submitted to federal decision-makers following our work in determining the cause of endangered right whale die-offs in 2017. This project includes the development of online summary reporting and mapping of plastics monitoring and any citizen science information received.

Resources

Brochures, Factsheets & Reading Material

Canada’s Plastics Science Agenda

Draft science assessment of plastic pollution

Canadian Science Symposium on Plastics Report

Plastic Pollution – Information Sheet

Ocean Plastics Charter

 

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Technical reports

Incident Report - North Atlantic Right Whale mortality event

Entanglement of marine mammals in plastic

Wildlife ingestion of microplastics

 

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Publications

• Rochman C, Browne M, Underwood A, van Franeker J, Thompson R, Amaral-Zettler L. The ecological impacts of marine debris: unraveling the demonstrated evidence from what is perceived. Ecology. 2016;97(2):302-312. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-2070.1
• Law K. Plastics in the Marine Environment. Annual Review of Marine Science. 2017;9(1):205-229. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-marine-010816-060409
• Avery-Gomm S, Borrelle S, Provencher J. Linking plastic ingestion research with marine wildlife conservation. Science of The Total Environment. 2018;637-638:1492-1495. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.409
• Borrelle S, Rochman C, Liboiron M, Bond A, Lusher A, Bradshaw H et al. Opinion: Why we need an international agreement on marine plastic pollution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2017;114(38):9994-9997. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1714450114
• Provencher J, Bond A, Avery-Gomm S, Borrelle S, Bravo Rebolledo E, Hammer S et al. Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization. Analytical Methods. 2017;9(9):1454-1469. https://doi.org/10.1039/C6AY02419J
• Browne M, Underwood A, Chapman M, Williams R, Thompson R, van Franeker J. Linking effects of anthropogenic debris to ecological impacts. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2015;282(1807):20142929. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.2929
• Provencher J, Borrelle S, Bond A, Lavers J, van Franeker J, Kühn S et al. Recommended best practices for plastic and litter ingestion studies in marine birds: Collection, processing, and reporting. FACETS. 2019;4(1):111-130. doi:10.1139/facets-2018-0043