Nesting albatross die from a diet of plastic

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These photographs, taken by photographer Chris Jordan are nothing short of astonishing… click here to see the full set.

These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world’s most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

2 thoughts on “Nesting albatross die from a diet of plastic

  1. Is there anything that we can do about? is there any group to suport ? This is a horrible thing that everybody should care about

  2. I’m sure that sea birds in the Indian ocean would appreciate the Government of the Maldives spending more of their time addressing the overflowing Maldives rubbish dumps than they do playing petty games under water. see here:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/jan/03/maldives-waste-turns-paradise-into-dump?picture=340126290

    How many rich tourists pay to pollute the Maldives? Shouldn’t we be looking at stopping the Maldives tourism which is causing this terrible pollution? Close their expensive polluting hotels and clean up the mess. The Maldives people would be far better off if they reverted back to their traditional fishing culture and didn’t subscribe to this mess and the catastrophe that it is causing to our environment.

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