Page 55 - Research & Innovation Report 2020

SCIENCE

Greyheaded Albatross being preyed on by a mouse. Photo:
Stefan Schoombie Skua pellets with plastics. Photo: Maelle Connan

summer when the skuas are breeding as they would likely eat mice with the plastic can also affect the physiology of predators,”
that may contain poison. Then, a compromise needs to be found says Dr Connan.
between good weather days when baiting can happen and true
winter, when many bird populations are mostly absent. We will While travelling to Kerguelen Island with colleague Dr Ben
also collect baseline data on a number of bird species to follow Dilley (FitzPatrick institute), they took the opportunity to record
changes in the whole ecosystem as it recovers in the absence of observations of marine litter from the research vessel supplying
mice,” explains Dr Connan. the French sub-Antarctic islands. Very few ships travel to these
southern seas. These observations are presented in a paper by
“To undertake this new SANAP, a research field assistant, Eleanor Dr Connan and collaborators, titled “The Indian Ocean ‘garbage
Weideman, will be based on Marion Island until April 2022 to patch’: Empirical evidence from floating macro-litter”, which was
collect data. Another field assistant will replace her to continue published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin in June 2021.
the work after that,” says Dr Connan. A team of about 20 people
stays on Marion Island for a full year, including field assistants “While travelling back from Kerguelen Island to Durban, we
(often future Master’s and PhD students), base personnel and encountered a garbage patch south east of Madagascar. For two
meteorologists. days in the middle of nowhere, we were surrounded by litter; it
was sad to see. These patches exist in all oceans and result from
“Team members undergo a psychological test as part of the marine currents that concentrate floating litter originated from
selection since they need to cope with a year of isolating with both mismanagement of waste on land and illegal discards at
a small group of people,” Dr Connan explains. “We select very sea,” explains Dr Connan. More research results from this first
practical, emotionally calm people who are able to work under any SANAP project will be released this year.
conditions. I spent a year on Marion Island ten years ago, doing
long-term monitoring of albatrosses and giant petrels for the
FitzPatrick Institute, and it was my best time ever.”

For the 2018 – 2020 project, Dr Connan and Prof Ryan partnered
with colleagues from the Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé
(France) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK) to
undertake research on numerous seabirds on not only Marion, but
also Gough and Kerguelen islands, using them as indicators of
plastic pollution and climate change.

“We looked at the birds’ stomach contents and regurgitations.
They mistake plastic particles for food and these take up space
in their stomachs. Since the birds feel full, they feed less, and
may die, or they feed regurgitated food with plastic particles in
it to their chicks, that may also die. The pollutants associated Dr Maëlle Connan. Photo: Chris Oosthuizen

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