ALBATROSS MASSACRE
It couldn’t be further from humanity. On a remote Pacific island where these magnificent birds breed, the killer plastic strikes
THEIR stomachs filled with cigarette lighters, bottle tops and tiny pieces of plastic, these albatrosses are the latest victims of the litter blight devastating wildlife.
But while these birds suffer because of our everyday plastic waste, they could hardly be further from humans – living on an uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific, 2,000 miles from the nearest continent.
These heartbreaking images – highlighting the global scale of the issue – come as thousands of Daily Mail readers join in our Great Plastic Pick Up today.
So far an incredible 920 pick ups have been organised across Britain, with 11,918 readers signed up – and it is not too late to organise your own pick up or join one in your area.
It is the latest part of the Mail’s decade-long fight to turn the tide on plastic, beginning with our Banish The Bags campaign that led to the 5p charge.
These albatrosses live on the atoll of Midway, halfway between North America and Asia. As a perfect breeding ground, the island was home to 70 per cent of the Laysan albatross population and 39 per cent of the black-footed albatross.
But converging currents mean even Midway cannot escape the blight of plastic waste discarded from around the world.
Everyday items such as bottle tops, pens, cigarette lighters litter the shores and pollute the seas.
To albatrosses, the brightly coloured items can be mistaken for fish or other food. And, tragically, the parents rearing their young pass the plastic food they have gathered at sea on to their babies with devastating consequences.
Scientists working across the north-western Hawaiian islands south of Midway found more than 97 per cent of dead Laysan albatross chicks – and more than 89 per cent of dead adult birds – had plastic in their stomachs.
A third of Laysan chicks will die from plastic consumption before adulthood, one report said.
The images showing the decaying bodies filed with plastic were taken by US photographer and director Chris Jordan, who made a film titled Albatross: Love Story for Our Time From The Heart Of The Pacific about their plight.
In it, hundreds of albatrosses can be seen living in between piles of rubbish. Other images show dead and dying birds, some of them seemingly writhing in agony.
Mr Jordan has visited Midway eight times since September 2009, spending 94 days there documenting the sea birds, which have a wing span of more than 6ft when fully grown. They can live into their sixties and mate for life.
‘I lost count of how many birds I witnessed choking on cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, bottle caps, and other plastic junk,’ he said.
‘Each time we go out there we’ve gone deeper into the horror. That’s our stuff there. Our stuff we use every day.’
Endangered green turtles and Hawaiian monk seals on Midway also eat the plastic.
Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series has also shown in heartbreaking detail the threat to marine creatures, including a whale with a dead calf thought to have been poisoned by plastic.
As the volunteer army of Mail readers geared up for the plastic pick up yesterday, they told of how they intend to do their bit to clean up Britain.
Pebsham Primary Academy in Hastings, East Sussex, will be sending 200 pupils to pick up plastic washed up on to the beach today. Deputy headmaster Julian Wood said: ‘There’s a lot of enthusiasm for it, [the kids] are very engaged. When one of our classes finishes, they have to finish with a litter pick. We have science lessons and maths lessons and because it’s our environment, we care for it.’
Susan Walker, 71, will lead a
group of litter pickers around Meole Village in Shrewsbury this afternoon with her dog Zizi. She first noticed all the litter in the village when she took her previous dog for walks.
‘I had a very old dog and because he went so slow I used to pick it up as I went. I will be picking up litter from 3.30pm to get them [children] when they’re around. They tend to know who I am because they love my dog.’
robin Lees is taking part in a pick up in Ambleside in the Lake District. The 67-year-old is looking forward to having some help cleaning up. The colossal clean-up received a special blessing yesterday. The Bishop of Dudley, Graham Usher, said: ‘The Church of england has been actively encouraging awareness of the plastic problem, with initiatives such as the plastic-less Lent and many congregations pledging to go “plastic free”. I want to say well done to everyone taking part in the Daily Mail’s Great Plastic Pick Up, cleaning up our environment, keeping the issue prominent and helping to care for God’s creation.’