Oct 27, 2009: Killer Plastic

We've discussed, here in the Cellar, the stories of huge amounts of plastic in the Pacific Ocean Gyre. Apparently most of the plastic breaks down into small pieces, making a "soup" just below the surface.

Well, not all of the pieces are small... :eyebrow:

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.

~cj, October 2009

Albatrosses are killing their chicks, without even realizing it.

link

Plus, less obvious, the "sand" on the worlds beaches is in part made up of broken down plastic. Some research found up to 10% of the grains are actually plastic. :yeldead:

The bastards!
Death to plastic hording birds!




[SIZE="1"]Got a light buddy?[/SIZE]:eek:

Dead albatros on the cellar, dead aspen on NPR, depressing start to the day and that's just the "A"s.

Don't you just hate it when you're eating a dead albatross chick, and you get a hunk of bottlecap stuck between your teeth?

Pretty sad statement.

Strange you don't see these images on the "power of plastic" commercials. :sniff::greenface

Griff;603612 wrote:

Dead albatros on the cellar, dead aspen on NPR, depressing start to the day and that's just the "A"s.

Yeah, I've been holding on to this for awhile, trying to figure out the best day for it. Too sad for a Monday, it's certainly not a Friday image, too important for a weekend. I just wish NPR would check with the Cellar first. ;)

This IotD is depressing as hell. We human beings are filthy pigs.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'd prefer happier things too, but some things are too important to ignore. Let's blame it on the Aussies, or the Japs, or maybe Aliens.

I thought we (Merkins, anyway) were blaming everything on China and Cuba. And Iran. Yeah, Iran.

Mebbe that evil-loution theory thingy is wrong ... albatrosses seem to be as good at figuring out plastic is not food as deer, squirrels, and opossum are about cars.

wolf;603790 wrote:

Mebbe that evil-loution theory thingy is wrong ... albatrosses seem to be as good at figuring out plastic is not food as deer, squirrels, and opossum are about cars.

The albatross, deer, squirrel, and opossum, that avoid these dangers, pass the information to their young.

Those that do not, cannot.

The young who fail to use the information, never grow old enough to pass on said information.

It's a slow process, but nature is slowly killing off the less-able-to-adapt.

What we need here is an ad campaign:

"Plastic - Albatross tested, albatross approved! Hundreds of thousands of albatross can't be wrong!"

Yeah, that's what we need.

Hey, there's my lucky green lighter I lost at the beach last year. Thanks for finding it!

Man has overcome evolution to the detriment of the planet.

He did it here as well in post 16.