Ninety-two percent of dead birds found on beaches in British Columbia, Canada and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon ingested significant amounts of plastic, according to a new study by scientists at the University of British Columbia. 

ABC Science has the full story. 

“The birds usually have dozens of pieces of plastic in their stomachs, things like candy wrappers, twine and Styrofoam, causing lacerations of the stomach lining, stunted growth and mortality.”

The researchers performed necropsies on 67 birds, finding each contained an average of 0.385 grams of plastic, equivalent to about five per cent of their body mass.

“I was shocked to find one bird with 454 pieces of plastic in her stomach,” says Avery-Gomm.

It’s a problem that is plaguing Hawaii’s bird populations as well, as evidenced in this astonishing photo series showing dead Albatross birds in the northwest Hawaiian islands with stomachs filled with plastic.