My Earth Day Message: Don’t litter

photo credit: David Patte - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
photo credit: David Patte – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This is one of the most heart-breaking videos I’ve ever seen. Created in 2009 by Chris Jordan, he writes:

“These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September 2009 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.”

aluminum can pulled from the stomach of a dolphin
aluminum can pulled from the stomach of a dolphin
In March 2nd, 2005 I participated in the rescue and rehabilitation of over 80 rough-toothed dolphins (Steno bredanensis) that had stranded themselves near Marathon, Florida. While there, I witnessed a veterinarian reach her arm down an ailing dolphin’s throat into the animal’s stomach to pull out a jagged aluminum soda can.

There is simply no excuse for being so careless with our garbage.