Out of sight = Out of mind!

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

I received this link from one of our WIRES people tonight. I read the paragraph about the images. All it does is sadden me for it portrays reality. Please take a look, but BE WARNED!!!

The images ARE NOT CUTE AND PRETTY! They are VERY GRAPHIC!

This is the link (http://chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=11).... :(:(:( Make sure YOU READ Chris Jordan's comment.

[Alfred Forns]

Difficult to read Akos, so sad !!!!!

[Harshad Barve]

So sad to read and see this Akosbhai,
Its high time for all of us across the globe to share this beautiful planet with every creature of nature.

[Katherine Enns]

Thanks so much, Akos, for posting this. This is a serious problem, and I suspect its not isolated to the location in which these chick skins were shot, but in any place where flotsam accumulates in huge mats and there are birds rearing young. I dont know much about these floating garbage archipelagos but they are a serious problem.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Wow, can't believe it. Echo Harshad's comment, but the political will does not seem to be in place for this to happen. Shocking and sad. A reality check for sure.

[Julie Kenward]

I've heard of this...especially with young ones. They fill up on plastic and end up starving to death. People just don't seem to understand that a bird can't tell your pop top from a kelp plant!

[Gus Cobos]

This is shocking, a real shame...:(

[Katherine Enns]

I thought I would add to my comment. This is a marine problem; garbage accumulating in huge mats that end up near bird colonies and the adults feed the flotsam to the young. Some of the mats are huge, they are visible from space. A lot of it originates from the practice of simply jettisoning garbage at sea, and although this practice has been going on for centuries, its become a serious problem in the past 60 years or so with the use of plastics in just about everything. Its ingrained, and part of sea commerce, so its really something that is going to take an international effort and a lot of work to correct. Write about it! Speak up, I am sure we can make a difference.

Kat

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Akos,
Jacques Cousteau's son; Jean-Michel, did a documentary about this on our PBS (public brodcasting stations).....there is a huge flotilla of floating plastic in the middle of the pacific.....where the albatross feed......really makes you think.

[Ramon M. Casares]

Terrible.. I will share this with all my fellow photographers.. so sad.

[Katherine Enns]

Is there any organization out there trying to do something about it?

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Hey Akos,
Jacques Cousteau's son; Jean-Michel, did a documentary about this on our PBS (public brodcasting stations).....there is a huge flotilla of floating plastic in the middle of the pacific.....where the albatross feed......really makes you think.

Ah Jean-Michel. Lovely man, I met him through my ex-publishers in Sydney six years ago! What a presence! WOW!

To answer you Katherine. I am not sure. However, if what Roman says is what it is, just a flotilla in the Pacific, then why can't a few big name organizations get together and do something? Send some ships with attachments to pick up the waste and deposit it into barges or whatever else. I know I may sound naive perhaps, but that's a thought isn't it? If there's enough public knowledge, then why not urge the conservationist orgs about it? Surely Greenpeace would know about this?

[Katherine Enns]

The only reason I know about it was I read an article in the New Yorker about a wealthy inventor who tried to build a raft out of pastic bottles from the mats and sail it across the Pacific to raise awareness, and was in some kind of competition / conflict with a greenpeace like organization trying to do the same. I dont know how big it is or where it is exactly. Like you I dont see why it cant be hauled off and disposed of, but its in international waters, its huge, and no one wants to take responsibility or action? I know it arose from mariner tradition of jettisoning garbage at sea. This is the first I have seen of its effects on sea birds, but I am sure this is the tip of the iceberg. if there is an org trying to DO something then i would want to help in some way.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

One of our Sydney newspapers ran it today (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/albatross-chicks-fed-bellies-full-of-plastic-by-their-parents-on-midway-atoll-in-polluted-north-pacific-ocean/story-e6freuy9-1225790127126). Check out the relatec coverage about halfway down the LHS.

[Katherine Enns]

Well good on them for running this. I see it only had 3 comments and so indeed your topic heading, out of sight out of mind fits. Thanks for posting this. I was told it IS visible in IKONOS imagery, but I dont really know, as I havent seen it but my guess is if I could get the coordinates, I can talk someone into capturing the space imagery. Let me know if you get any more info. I am very interested in this. (I need more to do like I need a hole in the head, but this gets my goat).

Thanks Akos,

ke