The Midway Islands are located in the middle of the Pacific. Made popular during the Second World war when the US Navy clashed with the Japanese naval army. The Midway Islands are now a beautiful sanctuary for many wild species. Unfortunately, the Pacific garbage patch is located nearby and affects many local species of animals, including birds. Chris Jordan, an American photographer, went there to photograph the consequences of American and Asian mass consumption on remote island creatures.
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.
~cj, Seattle, October 2009
All pictures are courtesy of Chris Jordan
