Fulmar Finders Information United Kingdom 2024

This document is an illustrated report intended for the surveyors in the monitoring program of plastic particles from stomachs of beached Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis).It contains brief summary information and photos of stomach contents from individual birds.The current report shows all birds from the UK for 2023 and 2024 as far as available.Avian influenza restrictions limited the number of birds available for study and some were released too late for study to be included in this report.Low sample sizes are not a problem for the monitoring program although larger sample sizes will increase the potential for statistical analyses.In order to avoid the variability in annual samples, the 'current situation' is always viewed as an average over the most recent five consecutive years.Over the current 2020-2024 period, 48 fulmar stomachs were investigated, among which 83% contained some plastic.Each fulmar on average had 12.9 plastic pieces in the stomach weighing 0.11 gram.The Fulmar-Threshold-Value (FTV) of 0.1 g was exceeded by 25% of the stomachs.The international policy aim is that this percentage should be reduced to below 10%.For details on e.g.trends, see the 2024 update of the scientific monitoring report series for the UK.