Also known as the Pacific Gyre, the soup a slowly rotating vortex of garbage that, when it gets close land, “vomits” forth plastic detritus all over the beaches. Consequently the Midway Islands are covered with plastic garbage.
What’s worse is the plastics also act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as pesticides and hydrocarbons. Pity anything that ingests it!
Enter the Albatross
According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals and countless fish. A myriad of plastic paraphernalia such as syringes, cigarette lighters, children’s toys and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.
Prompted by this profound environmental tragedy of our time: the deaths by starvation of thousands of albatrosses who mistake floating plastic trash for food, five media artists, led by photographer Chris Jordan, travelled to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to witness and record the catastrophic effect of our disposable culture on some of the world’s most beautiful and symbolic creatures.
Do you wonder like I do: when are we going to stop drowning in plastic?
Midway. Message from the Gyre
Additional information:
Video from the movie Message in the Waves.
The Synthetic Sea
Resources for more information:
http://www.unep.org/pdf/EcosystemBiodiversity_DeepWaters_20060616.pdf
http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm
http://www.apocadocs.com/cgi-bin/docdisp.cgi?tag=plastic+gyre
Written by Suze Chalmers
Image courtesy of Midway Journey via Flickr Creative Commons
To make a difference yourself, connect with an agency in the wildlife services section of our directory.
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