Message from the Gyre
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 world's most remote
marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.
