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On a pristine Australian island, the seabirds have become so full of plastic they crackle and crunch. (www.abc.net.au)

submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Note: This article is actually titled "Losing the war on waste".

I have used the by-line for the title instead, as I felt it more representative of the story.

For about 18 years, Dr Jen Lavers has been travelling to Lord Howe Island to study the mutton birds, and every time finds more and more plastic inside them.

Last month, her team Adrift Lab found a bird that broke the record: almost a fifth of its entire body weight was plastic.

“To witness it first-hand, it is incredibly visceral. There is now so much plastic inside the birds you can feel it on the outside of the animal when it is still alive. As you press on its belly … you hear the pieces grinding against each other.

“That changes people.”

The mutton birds have become so full of plastic their bellies crunch and crackle with the sound of it.

It is a graphic sound, but one that the Lord Howe Island scientists want the world to hear.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Eww that noise is haunting.

Since Dr Lavers’s first visit in 2008, she has witnessed an increase from about three quarters of birds carrying about five to 10 pieces of plastic, to every single bird having 50 or more pieces.

Until last month, the most they had ever found was 403 pieces in 2024.

“I’m sad to say just yesterday we blew [the record] out of the water, and our new record holder is 778 pieces of plastic in an 80-day-old seabird chick, in one of the most pristine corners of our planet.”

Can anyone smart figure out how fast that is increasing?

[–] stringere 4 points 2 weeks ago

403 / 778 = 0.51799...

51% increase from the previous year.