Birthday bird

The Atlantic ocean was unbelievably generous to me on my birthday this year and surprised me with a spectacular Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) sighting in the choppy waters. Before the big show, we had a very short sighting of an, unfortunately, all too common event. A juvenile Cory’s shearwater (Calonectris borealis) was resting at the surface with something in its beak and it didn’t take our crew and guests long till we realised that it was a small, jet-blue piece of nylon from a fishing net.

Abandoned or lost fishing nets, also referred to as ghost nets, or their torn jetsam are only a small part of the enormous plastic problem threatening various marine bird species worldwide. The toxic material clutters their ecosystems in all shapes and sizes like an inescapable epidemic often leading to injuries or ingestion. The unfortunate demise of marine birds, especially those in very remote areas, such as the famous Midway island, makes these creatures true ambassadors for the plastic problem in our oceans.

As for most marine animals, one of the greatest dangers birds face from plastic is mistaking it for prey and ingesting it. Not only is it a highly toxic substance, leaching into the tissue and slowly poisoning the animal, the material also clogs stomachs and airways, causing its host to slowly starve or choke to death. Sharp pieces of plastic may cause organ injuries and internal bleeding. Members of the charismatic tubenose family (Procellariiformes), like the encountered Cory, are especially vulnerable. Many of these highly pelagic bird species prey on mesopelagic, bioluminescent creatures making colorful plastic pieces especially ttractive to them. Moreover, once the animals notice their mixup, they are unable to regurgitate the particles and have a smaller gizzard than most birds, a part of the stomach that could help in excreting the unwanted material from their bodies.

The tragedy culminates in its rawest form on Midway, a remote island in the North Pacific that is now popular for all the wrong reasons. Ecologists were shocked to find this important bird habitat littered with dead albatross chicks who had starved after ingesting plastic that was fed to them by their unknowing parents. Like all other tubenoses, albatrosses only have one offspring a year so every single chick counts for the survival of the population. The young chicks are unable to regurgitate the toxic material which eventually clogs up their stomachs leading to an inevitable, agonizing death.

Photographer Chris Jordan has made it his mission to capture carcasses of albatross chicks whose stomachs are crammed with plastic. And yes I used the present tense there, are. Because even after the chicks body has decomposed, the brightly-colored plastic caps, dental floss, nylon meshes etc remain. This highlights yes another worrying aspect; Plastic doesn’t decompose. It is simply brown into tiny little pieces known as microplastics, that accumulate up the marine food chain creating a whole new problem altogether.

My birthday was in November but I haven’t forgotten the encounter with this young Cory because I am a part of this deeply disturbing problem, we all are. That’s why facing plastic is so ugly. We don’t get to blame everybody else; we all use it and we all know what it does.

This isn’t a happy blog, I know, but we can’t just look away. I won’t forget the birthday bird and I advise you not to should you.

By Paula Thake

P.S If you are interested in the sad fate of the birds of Midway, check out Chris Jordan’s movie „Albatross“. Follow this link to view the trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJnrABfEF1o