Wasted away
Seabirds killed by plastic pollution in the middle of the Pacific Ocean
All birds have plastic in them. Each time I opened them up, it was a gallery of horrors CHRIS JORDAN US PHOTOGRAPHER AND DOCUMENTARY MAKER
SHOCKING images show two young dead albatrosses, while the plastic that killed them glints in their rotted stomachs.
The pictures are taken from a new film its maker hopes will awaken the world to the scourge of plastic debris in the oceans.
These birds live on uninhabited Midway Island, in the Pacific.
They feature in Albatross: Love Story For Our Time From The Heart Of The Pacific – a documentary which shines a light on the plastic pollution that kills thousands of birds on the remote spot.
Here mums innocently feed their chicks mouthfuls of regurgitated plastics. US photographer Chris Jordan said: “This material lasts forever, yet we throw it away after a single use. Biologists found [the birds] can fly 10,000 miles in a single feeding trip.
“Albatross trust what the ocean provides. But along with the nutrients the mother is carrying is something toxic and sharp, which is heading towards the soft stomach of her baby.
“All the birds have plastic inside them. Each time I opened them up was like a gallery of horrors.”
Scientists in the Hawaiian islands found more than 97% of dead Laysan albatross chicks – and more than 89% of dead adult birds – had plastic in their stomachs.
Mr Jordan first visited Midway in 2009, where all he saw for two weeks were tens of thousands of dead chicks. He returned and spent 94 days, spread over eight years, to make his film of the birds, which have a 10ft wingspan. Albatross is out nationwide on Friday.