Most of the fish and birds that she's studied have come from Lake Erie. Mason and her students began collecting fish in January by going to local ice fisherman; Mason wound up with a lot of perch, since that's what they were catching. Through the spring, Mason and her student assistants examined 75 perch and 17 cormorants, a type of water bird. In both cases, a high percentage of the subjects had plastics in their gastrointestinal tracts, Mason says. - Halil