Citizen Scientists Track How Plastic Pollution Impacts Birds.
Last month, Donnelly-Greenan published a study with her colleagues that analyzed beach surveys done by trained volunteers—so-called citizen scientists—in six coastal counties. Collectively, the surveyors observed 65,604 marine animal carcasses on California beaches in the past 20 years. Of these, 357 were cases of seabird entanglements. While disturbing, this information is necessary to assess and ultimately offer solutions to the problem of plastics.
