By now, there's a good chance you've seen Chris Jordan's harrowing photos of dead albatrosses on the Midway Atoll, via the internet or social media. Guts stuffed with gaudy plastic junk, their cadavers appear more like surreal art exhibits than seabirds captured in their natural environment. Then again, plastic pollution would appear to be the new norm. Oceanic currents have caused plastic materials to accumulate in 'gyres', or spirals, in one spot, and the largest of these gyres -dubbed 'the Great Pacific Garbage Patch' - is currently twice the size of the state of Texas. According to UNESCO stats, oceanic plastic debris kills more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals annually, and microplastics consumed by fish and shrimp are now entering our gullets too - with currently unknown long-term health consequences.
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