By Brian Williams
December 30, 2008 12:00am
An albatross chick has been found dead with 272 pieces of plastic in its gut.
The haul included a cigarette lighter, nine bottle tops, 10 lids, a lollipop stick, twine, fishing line, a fork and a toy wheel.
It was found at Dunedin, New Zealand, but Australian wildlife carers said the 250g load was no surprise.
They routinely find animals such as marine turtles and seabirds dying from plastic-clogged stomachs.
Albatross are found mainly in colder southern waters but injured birds often stray as far north as Fraser Island.
Australian Seabird Rescue spokesman Keith Williams yesterday said he had seen 180 different kinds of plastic pulled from the gut of a marine turtle.
“It’s an awful lot of plastic and shows just how much is out there,” Mr Williams said. “We have to draw the line on disposable plastic.”
Mr Williams said so much plastic was floating in the so-called North Pacific garbage patch – where circulating currents meet – that it covered an area the size of Texas. It holds an estimated 6kg of plastic for every 1kg of animal life.
Australia produces more than 60kg for every person each year and much of it ends up in landfill or oceans.