Adrift Lab research featured in a new ‘Pollution Patch’ exhibition

Adrift Lab’s research into seabirds and plastic ingestion has been included in a new exhibition which opened this week at the SciTech Discovery Center in Perth.

The ‘Pollution Patch’ exhibit features facts and data provided by the Adrift Lab team, along with around 100 pieces of plastic. These plastics were ingested by shearwaters while they were foraging in the ocean off Australia’s east coast. The birds then regurgitated the plastics within their breeding colonies, which are located on a remote island.

More than 300,000 people visit the Scitech Discovery Centre each year, meaning this important information will be read by many thousands of people over the coming months. The display includes a list of problematic items, such as plastic balloon clips. We hope this will educate and motivate visitors to think twice about using these items, and encourage them to think creatively about how we avoid other common types of plastic pollution.