Record-breaking levels of plastic have been found inside seabirds, with one bird alone containing nearly 900 pieces of plastic. For over a decade, scientists believed they had identified the most severely affected birds in terms of plastic contamination. However, from 2023 to 2026, the records were broken annually, highlighting a worsening crisis. These findings come from the world's longest-running study on plastic ingestion in living wildlife, conducted on Lord Howe Island in Australia. Over the past 15 years, scientists at the Adrift Lab have been examining the stomachs of young sable shearwaters—birds that feed their chicks by bringing food from the ocean. Unfortunately, they often mistake floating plastic debris for prey, leading their young to ingest harmful amounts of plastic. In 2011, a sable shearwater was found with 276 pieces of plastic, weighing 64.1 grams (2.3 ounces). This record stood for over a decade until 2023, when a fledgling bird was discovered with more than 400 items of plastic. The record has continued to rise each year, peaking at 894 pieces of plastic, also weighing 64.2 grams. This amount represents more than 15% of the bird's expected body weight—comparable to a human carrying 12 kilograms (26 pounds) of plastic, which is roughly 15% of their body weight. This sharp increase reflects the growing amount of plastic waste entering the world's oceans. The study also found that specific types of plastic, such as nurdles—tiny plastic pellets used in manufacturing—and bottle caps, are becoming more common in the waste found in the birds' stomachs. Researchers suggest that improving recycling efforts, such as attaching bottle caps to bottles, could help reduce the problem. While global discussions continue on a potential Global Plastic Treaty, the scientists emphasize that even if such a treaty is quickly established, the effects of existing plastic pollution will persist for decades. If all plastic production were to stop immediately, ocean waste levels would still rise until 2050, underscoring the urgent need for more long-term research and the sharing of data across the scientific community. Dr. Alex Bond, a co-author of the study and principal curator of birds at the Natural History Museum, noted that the discovery of 276 pieces of plastic in a bird in 2012 was once considered the worst-case scenario. However, the record has been broken every year since 2023, showing that the plastic crisis is worsening. He emphasized that while the problem is growing, global efforts to address it are not keeping pace. The findings have been published in the journal Earth's Future, providing further evidence of the urgent need for action to protect marine life from the escalating threat of plastic pollution.