Save the North Sea fulmar-litter-ecoQO manual Part 1 :collection and dissection procedures

This manual describes standard procedures for the collection and dissection of beachwashed Fulmars used in the Save the North Sea (SNS)'-Fulmar study. Save the North Sea is an international project which aims to reduce marine litter through increased awareness. Fulmars ingest marine litter and accumulate rubbish such as plastics in the stomachs. Therefore, Fulmars are used as the symbol of the SNS campaign. At the same time, litter in stomach contents of Fulmars is being developed as an international monitoring tool to measure changes in levels of litter. It is one of the Ecological Quality Objectives for the North Sea (EcoQOs') which OSPAR has to implement at the request of the Ministers of North Sea countries (NSC Bergen Declaration, March 2002). This report describes standard methods for handling bird corpses in the intended Fulmar-Litter-EcoQO