Seabirds are among the most severely affected wildlife by plastic pollution, with millions dying annually from ingestion, entanglement, and feeding plastic to chicks.
Seabird plastic ingestion creates welfare harm that operates invisibly across vast ocean distances. An albatross parent feeding a bolus of plastic nurdles to a chick thousands of kilometers from the plastic source causes a death by starvation that no individual or authority witnesses. The disconnection between plastic production, ocean accumulation, and seabird suffering makes this a paradigmatic invisible welfare crisis requiring systemic rather than individual responses.