Seabird population declines globally

The population of seabirds has declined worldwide. This decline is a sign of a deeper problem in the oceans ecosystems’. Seabirds live along oceans and are crucial predators to the marine ecosystems. They transport nutrients into the ecosystem through their waste, and they help fertilize entire ecosystems. When the population goes down, it is an indicator that the ecosystem is in trouble. Scientists from the Sea Around Us project have been doing research to find out why the population of the seabirds is declining. They discovered that the decline of birds is the result of overfishing, pollution, trash build up causing death, and many other factors. A major threat to seabirds is getting caught on longline fish hooks and drowning. A solution to this problem could be making efforts to protecting seabirds. One of the main causes of the seabirds population declining is death from human impact. Pollution in the air and water affects every ecosystem in the environment. Trash build up catches animals and kills them, especially seabirds. By putting more effort towards cleaning up the environment as a whole, it will greatly affect the population of seabirds globally. A problem with this solution is that it is naive to think that people will begin to care about the planet all of a sudden. There are programs all over the world to clean up the oceans and cut back pollution. People don’t understand the severity of what’s going on in the environment, and they won’t begin to care until it’s too late. Another way the population of seabirds can be helped is to figure out the source of the problem. In most cases, seabirds disappearing is a response to the marine ecosystem changing. If scientists can figure out what is changing in the ocean, then they can make a plan to fix it. The problem with this solution is that it may take years to find out the cause of the seabirds declining let alone a way to fix the problem. By the time the problem is found, it may be too late. If the scientists from the Sea Around Us project do more research and devote time to this problem, they can find a solution to the problem. It will only happen if someone cares about the birds. People may not see the birds as a priority, but they are crucial to the rest of the marine ecosystem.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150709102850.htm