The Effects of Littering on Albatross Chicks (56k warning)

[Fire Fly]

A photographer by the name of Chris Jordan photographs the effects of litter on albatrosses of Midway Atoll.

For more pictures click here

[The Grim Squeaker]

Awesome! (And also, sad, tragic, terrible, etc').
But seriously, it's amazing how much stuff they have in them, you'd think their stomach acids would dissolve the paints at the least.

[AniThyng]

The sheer amount of plastic beggars belief, it looks like these birds died with a stomach FULL of plastic...these are extremely morbid pictures - how much of a percentage does survive to adulthood?

[Vehrec]

The sheer amount of plastic beggars belief, it looks like these birds died with a stomach FULL of plastic.

Yep. Actually, it probably killed them by starvation, by leaving no room for anything else. Some of it washed ashore, some of it came from people on Midway throwing their garbage out, some was eaten by fish that were fed to them by their parents. Most of it is undoubtedly just stuff that their parents swagged off the surface of the ocean thinking it might be food.