Abstract:
Weprovide data on regional differences in plastic ingestion for two Southern Ocean top predators: Arctocephalus
fur seals and albatrosses (Diomedeidae). Fur seals breeding on Macquarie Island in the 1990s excreted small
(mainly 2–5 mm) plastic fragments, probably derived secondarily from myctophid fish. No plastic was found
in the scats of these seals breeding on three islands in the southwest Indian and central South Atlantic Oceans,
despite myctophids dominating their diets at these locations. Compared to recent reports of plastic ingestion
by albatrosses off the east coast of South America, we confirm that plastic is seldom found in the stomachs of
Thalassarche albatrosses off South Africa, but found no Diomedea albatrosses to contain plastic, compared to
26% off South America. The reasons for such regional differences are unclear, but emphasize the importance of
reporting negative as well as positive records of plastic ingestion by marine biota.
