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Updated 2 months, 4 weeks ago

News and Big Ideas

Have you ever seen 500 people stunned into a complete and devastated silence?

Photographer Chris Jordan[57] shared a sobering tale of his journey to Midway Atoll[58] with the Poptech conference [59]on Thursday, where he captured horrifying images of baby birds killed by plastic from the Pacific Trash Gyre[60]. The crowd, which had been listening to a day of Big Ideas, was dumbstruck.

If youve never heard of the Gyre also known as the Great Pacific Garbage ...

Patch and the Pacific Trash Vortex odds are you will hear a lot more soon. It is an oceanic trash pile in the north Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas, trapped in a remote, circular current. (Check out this explainer from Good[61])

As Jordan explained, its not a floating garbage dump as you might imagine it. Most of the debris is made up of tiny pieces of plastic and other litter which is floating in a suspension beneath the surface of the water. Some researchers have found that water in the Gyre holds six times more plastic molecules than phytoplankton, the single-celled organisms at the bottom rung of the marine food chain.

Jordan traveled to Midway Island[62], near the site of the pivotal World War Two naval battle, to document the death of baby albatrosses on the islands nature reserve. The birds scoop the plastic out of the water and feed it to their babies.

Its difficult to look at Jordans pictures of the birds, with the ingested plastic outlasting their decomposing bodies, without wondering: Could that have been my bottlecap?

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 worlds most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

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NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here[104].

64 comments on this story

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Showing 40 relevant reactions out of 64.

FatlyURL 2 months, 4 weeks ago on Twitter

http://fat.ly/vmkmi (fat.ly Usenet API) www.usenet.com.au

yudiztweets 3 months ago on Twitter

RT @@greennews: Very sad - victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre. In this photographic d victims are baby albatrosses. http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1

Keith Stone 3 months ago on Wordpress

It is shocking, plastics should not be used for food wrap, it has health implications for us who use the food contained in it I am led to believe. Plastic takes years to breakdown, and if we stop using it today the damage will carry on well into the 22nd. and 23rd. centuries unless we can clean up the mess that WE have made. That will not be done …..will it?

Marcia Goffin 3 months, 1 week ago on Wordpress

This is absolutely shocking and not acceptable. I will send this email on to my friends and colleagues in the hope that they will do the same, and so may the protests continue.

kikiweber78 3 months, 1 week ago on Twitter

http://bit.ly/q8vrK

Take a look at these photos...

Dusan Ristic-Petrovic 3 months, 1 week ago on Wordpress

I think this is an important issue. Especially disturbing to me is that much of what is in the gut of the pictured birds looks like it could be medical waste - test tube caps and so on. At the very least, the stuff looks fairly homogeneous, which would seem to me to be inconsistent with a generalized plastic waste gyre in the Pacific. The question is, is the stuff in the pictures from some sort of ... See all content Hide content

RSeabird 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

@slzebell - Keep in mind that the abstract you reference was from almost 20 years ago and even they note that they looked at one year and it was a lower than average year. During my research at Midway and Kauai, I have personally had vets declare plastic ingestion/blockage of the digestive tract as the cause of death in several Laysan Albatross chicks. The photos Chris Jordan took are not sensationalizing ... See all content Hide content

N_BNC 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Very sad - victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre. In this photographic example the victims are baby albatrosses. http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1

Arina 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

I’m from Kamchatka. We try to use one idea taken from the Ecocap Movement http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/027124.h tml

We (me and several children) have made green boxes, set them in 5 places - a cinema, cafe, ect. to collect the PE caps for recycling. I can show to my small colleagues who might be saved far away in the sea.

SLZebell 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

Staging dramatic “photographic” images without accompanying analysis and study hurts your cause more than you think it helps. Less dramatic, but more realistic indications from this study written up in Veterinary Pathology indicates no evidence of 1) injested plastics being the result of mortality, and 2) no indication that baby albatoss are being force-fed a steady diet of cigarette lighters ... See all content Hide content

lindseylinds 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

These pictures are heartbreaking: http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1. That Pacific Trash Gyre is seriously scary.

chelleari 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

is urging everyone to learn about the Pacific Trash Gyre: http://bit.ly/q8vrK

ABCGreenQueen 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Rubbish Gyre - so sad. http://bit.ly/q8vrK

greennews 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Very sad - victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre. In this photographic example the victims are baby albatrosses. http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1

quoththeraven29 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Baby albatrosses starve to death with stomachs full of plastic from the Pacific Ocean. Help them. http://tinyurl.com/ylxuyu5

Nike, the albatross, and sustainable design 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

[...] from photographer Chris Jordan, who shared a series of photographs from Midway Atoll of baby albatrosses who had died from ingesting plastic from the massive Pacific Garbage [...]

tweetafolia 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Another human contribution to earth at http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1 #Green

barbwire55 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Sometime soon we've got to look at the big picture and spark dramatic changes: http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1 (not for the faint hearted)

Adam Pasick 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

To Dusan — A large percentage of the trash has broken down into tiny fragments, but there is still plenty of it intact.

drgardner 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Thanks for posting the trash gyre pictures http://bit.ly/1MtN3A @vbearinger. Tragic. Frightening, since plastic bits now in ocean food chain

PeteOnTheA419 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Looking at consequences of Pacific garbage - not pretty: http://bit.ly/q8vrK

GlassDharma 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

victims of plastic - http://bit.ly/q8vrK - please reuse, reusable instead.

creativedbq 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? http://bit.ly/q8vrK

daleloflin 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Gyre - oceanic trash pile in the north Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas http://tinyurl.com/ylxuyu5

envirosmart 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch great eye witness report - http://bit.ly/3Mm5U1# http://bit.ly/aKoRi

Christy 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

This is awful, we as a whole should be ashamed. Poor animals.

uberVU - social comments 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Wordpress

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by Adampasick: Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre, documented by photographer Chris Jordan: http://bit.ly/oKWu8 #poptech…

mtbiegler 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

results of the garbage patch...

http://tinyurl.com/ylxuyu5

summertweet 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

What is twice the size of Texas and floats? What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch/Pacific Trash Vortex? http://bit.ly/hEpcO

EmmanuelGonot 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Reuters: Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre: Photographer Chris Jordan shares a sobering ta.. http://bit.ly/3ok6Bn

#environment

IsabelMax 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Help get rid/spread word of Plastics in Oceans - important photos at http://bit.ly/oKWu8 and http://socialapproach.com/ocean-plastics

drgardner 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre, documented by photographer Chris Jordan: http://bit.ly/oKWu8 <- frightening. (via @ vbearinger)

NEEDS82 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Photos of baby Albatross who died from ingesting plastic & human trash floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: http://bit.ly/3ozYoj

ciscocardoso 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

olha onde vai parar aquele plastiquinho "inocente": http://bit.ly/q8vrK

GreenEnergyNews 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre: Photographer Chris Jordan shares a sobering tale of his journey to Midway At.. http://bit.ly/cg0L1

ecogreenlive 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre: Photographer Chris Jordan shares a sobering tale of his journey to Midway At.. http://bit.ly/3ok6Bn

i_buy_eco 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre: Photographer Chris Jordan shares a sobering tale of his journey to Midway At.. http://bit.ly/3ok6Bn

RtrsEnvironment 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre http://link.reuters.com/wan65f

Adampasick 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre, documented by photographer Chris Jordan: http://bit.ly/oKWu8 #poptech

reuters 3 months, 2 weeks ago on Twitter

Victims of the Pacific Trash Gyre, documented by photographer Chris Jordan: http://bit.ly/oKWu8 #poptech

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