An ocean of plastics

[havalotta]

On Midway, along a tiny stretch of sand in the Northern Pacific, albatross chicks are fed plastic garbage by their parents.
The adult birds, which pluck fish from just below the surface of the ocean, confuse the coloful detrius for food.

Chicks raised on this diet inevitably die; either from starvation, toxicity, or choking.
When their bodies decompose, they leave behind these shocking colorful remains.

Chris Jordan 's work attempts to place the impact of plastic garbage fed to albatross chicks in perspective.
An Ocean of Plastic...In Birds' Guts (Slideshow) : Planet Green

[Equilibrium]

Disgusting!!! TOTALLY disgusting. How hard is it to keep your garbage with you so you can toss it in a garbage can or better yet.... recycle it. These people are worse than the cigarette smokers that flick butts out car windows when they've got an ashtray right in their car.

[havalotta]

Here's a group doing something about the coastlines pollution. Bioneers 2010: "Washed Ashore" Art Exhibit Explores Plastic Pollution with Giant Beach-Trash Bird : TreeHugger

Inspired by Chris Jordan's photography, working with a group of volunteers in Bandon, Oregon, Angela Haseltine Pozzi has created the massive bird shown off at Bioneers in the Bay Area of California, created all from remnants of flip-flop foam cut-outs, plastic ties, tires, ropes, pieces of toys and many other bits and pieces of beach trash from the Beijing Olympics still washing up on western coastlines.

And it's rubbing off on others!

Another nearby community Newport, Oregon will begin a similar volunteer project that will turn beach trash into educational art supplies.

[benj1]

The art exhibit strikes me more as a "Gee whiz, look what they did" than a prod to viewers about what the problem really is. I don't know what the answer is, but I wouldn't walk away from this exhibit with any clue as to what could be done.

[havalotta]

I agree it IS a piece of art but it's also stimulating others to collect the trash not only in that location but other coastline areas as well.
It's getting people to THINK about the actual quantity of things polluting our seas, our earth.
If it hinders people in the least bit from tossing things onto the ground, into the water, into the ditches. It's a good thing. It was worth the effort.

[Staff]

Invisible Plastic Particles in Seawater Damaging to Sea Animals
ScienceDaily
Sep. 20, 2012

Invisible plastic particles in seawater damaging to sea animals
excerpt from above:

Plastic nanoparticles in seawater can have an adverse effect on sea organisms. Particles measuring about a thirty millionth of a millimetre, and therefore invisible to the naked eye, are responsible. Mussels that have been exposed to such particles eat less, and thus grow less well, according to research carried out by scientists and students at Wageningen University and IMARES, both part of Wageningen UR. They wrote about their research in the most recent issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

The presence of 'plastic soup' in the oceans is regarded as a big problem. Tiny plastic particles enter the sea when plastic debris decomposes. Such particles are probably also released from cosmetics and from clothes in the wash, subsequently entering the sewage system and surface waters and eventually reaching the sea...

[havalotta]

Mussels are very good sifters. I believe they use them to clean up areas but now see they too are suffering from mans input.