Seabird poop is worth millions, say scientists trying to save the birds
[Aug. 6, 2020: CNN]
Some hot commodities are obvious: gold, oil, corn and more recently, hand sanitizer, are clearly worth a lot.
But some valuable products are less evident -- and much more off-putting.
New research has revealed that the waste produced by seabirds -- that's right, the poop of seagulls, pelicans, and penguins -- could be worth nearly half a billion dollars annually.
That's because seabird feces, also known as guano, can be used as commercial fertilizer and is vital for contributing nutrients to marine ecosystems.
In an effort to raise awareness about the importance of seabirds and conserving their habitats, scientists set out to quantify the contributions of seabirds and illustrate the actual cost of declining seabird populations by valuing their waste.
It's not petty cash: Its value is estimated at more than $473 million each year and possibly much more, according to a new paper published today in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
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"Guano production is an ecosystem service made by seabirds at no cost to us -- I can go to an island, collect the guano, and sell it at market price as fertilizer," study coauthor Marcus V. Cianciaruso, an ecology professor at the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil, said in a press release.
"Because there is this scientific and biological importance, it's possible to quantify seabird ecosystem services in a language that the general public and policymakers can begin to understand."
Not just commercial value
Although only a few seabird species produce guano that is currently commercialized in Peru, Chile and other countries, the waste of other birds contributes vital nutrients to marine ecosystems and is also important for coastal economies.
Seabirds bodily functions are nature's way of pumping nutrients back and forth "between marine and terrestrial habitats," wrote Cianciaruso and his coauthor, Daniel Plazas-Jiménez, a doctoral student at the Federal University of Goiás, in the paper.
"They release high concentrations of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) through their faeces, causing important environmental changes in these ecosystems," according to the study.
In coral reef ecosystems, the nutrients deposited from guano can increase reef fish biomass -- a measurement of the number of fish in a reef and their size -- by up to 48%, according to the study. That's important for fisheries and tourism in places like the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.
Researchers estimated the annual value of the nitrogen and phosphorus deposited into these ecosystems from seabird poop by calculating the cost to replace them with artificial nutrients. As it turns out, failing to protect seabirds could get expensive.
"We made a very conservative estimate that 10% of coral reef fish stocks depend on seabird nutrients," said Plazas-Jiménez. "According to the United Nations and the Australian government, the annual economic returns of commercial fisheries on coral reefs is over $6 billion. So, 10% of this value is around $600 million per year."
When you combine that with the commodified guano figure of nearly $474 million, the value of seabird poop increases to an estimated $1 billion.
In these terms, seabird conservation doesn't sound like a crappy investment at all.
"However, because seabird species are heavily threatened, this function [nutrient deposition] is threatened too," Plazas-Jiménez told CNN in an email. "To face these threats, it is necessary that the general public, the economic sectors, and policymakers get involved in seabird conservation.".... Read More
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