Confronting new images have
revealed the cost of Australia's obsession with plastic, with appalled
scientists recovering hundreds of fragments from the stomachs of fledgling
chicks.
By Nicole Hasham
18 May 2018 — 9:26pm
Deep in their burrows, hungry
shearwater chicks on Lord Howe Island await a meal. Their parents have been
scouring the sea in search of fish and squid. Instead, they return to feed
their babies clothes pegs, bottle tops and Lego pieces.
The flesh-footed sheerwater
population at Lord Howe Island is dwindling due to a tidal wave of marine plastic
being mistaken for food.
After 90 days the fledglings
emerge from their burrows, stomachs bulging with plastic. They prepare for
their first flight. Many are so malnourished they die outside the nest. Others
make it to the beach, but their undeveloped wings flap in vain and waves engulf
them.
Ian Hutton, a naturalist and
museum curator on Lord Howe Island, pulls the bodies off the beach. Researchers
slice open their stomachs to confirm the cause of death. Once, they found 274
plastic fragments.
“It’s so upsetting to think this
bird has been reared by its parents, it’s been fed and it should have a chance
to go to sea but it’s died,” he said.
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