Planet Gore reader L.A. in Canada sends in this item:
This photo appeared on the front page of The Gazette, Montreal Saturday Nov. 15th with the caption “An albatross carcass filled with plastic the bird ingested lies on the beach at Kure Atoll, Hawaii”. The credit line is Cynthia Vanderlip, Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
Surely, it’s conceivable that sea birds might mistakenly and repeatedly swallow bottle caps floating in the ocean. But all that? And would the bottle caps further along in its digestive system (at the lower left of the photo) look so brand-spanking-new? The caption on the pic suggests the bird did eat this much junk, but I don’t see how that’s possible.
Junk in the oceans is a huge problem, but alarmist fauxtography is not the way to a solution.
