Impact of Plastic Pollution: A Study on Midway Island Birds

The video MIDWAY a message from the Gyre: a short film by Chris Jordan gave me the chills and ultimately upset me. In the beginning of the short film the diretor shows us a glimpse of the seagulls that inhibit Midway Island, North Pacific Ocean, an Island that is more than 2,000 miles from the nearest continent. Jordan includes a clip of a mother gull feeding her baby gull before showing us snapshots of dead gulls with trash and plastic in their bodies. When i first saw these pictures I honestly thought that the photogragher arranged random pieces of plastic found on the isand into a dead seagull’s body. After the snapshots the director included a video of the photographer cutting open in a seagull’s body and taking random objects and pieces of plastic out. When I saw this my heart broke, I was in disgust and mad at us humans. The poor birds dying shown in the following clips were also very sad and graphic. These innocent birds are consumming

plastic objects thinking they are food just because we humans are too lazy to pick up after ourselves. I am not sure what are all the health effects that plastics will have on seabirds population but I am sure none are beneficial. I am pretty sure the birds aren’t able to digest plastic like they do with food. An accomulation of these plastic objects may affect the amount the amount of room the seagull will have in its stomach for food. This will affect how much the bird will eat and the plastic may also puncture an organ, costing the seagulls life.

While I was watching this video it reminded me of a trip to Umass Amherst I had a couple of weeks ago.

I went on a Peter Pan bus and the sitings in the begining of the trip were beautiul. I was thinking to myself how beautiful nature was, how clean and perfect everything looked had me amazed. Two hours into the ride the scenery changed but I was still amazed. I noticed trash almost everywhere I looked. The water from ponds we passed by were mucky. I noticed a sign saying “Welcome to Holyoke”, I paid attention to this city as we passed by it. Everywhere I looked I saw garbage and it seem like no one in this city cared. When we passed by a factory and I thought to myself that this city must be very polluted. As we entered more into the city, we began seeing builings, houses, stores, and restaurants. Not to my suprise these also looked trashed. We passed by many half burned apartments and buildings. All these places looked extremely old and I didn’t see many people around. Holyoke seem to me like a deserted and lost

city.
Sometimes I wish people were more considerate about the enviorment and the creatures who inhibit them. Some people seem to be ignorant on the fact that just like other creatures, we need plants and oceans in our lives. Humans trashing the enviorement isn’t helping anyone and in fact is hurting everyone. The video MIDWAY a message from the Gyre: a short film by Chris Jordan gave me more to think and can be a real eye opener for those who liter and put our enviorement and wild species in danger.