Physical and chemical effects of ingested plastic debris on short-tailed shearwaters, Puffinus tenuirostris, in the North Pacific Ocean

► We investigated the effects of PCBs in plastic debris on seabird physiology. ► The mean mass of plastics found in the stomach of shearwater was 0.23 g per bird. ► Plastic mass did not correlate with body weight. ► PCBs in the adipose tissue of 12 seabirds ranged from 45 to 529 ng/g-lipid. ► The ingested plastic mass correlated positively with adipose concentration of lower-chlorinated PCBs.